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EPA  noted problem at facility in 2002

Environmental services company Veolia has had no recent complaints at its Infirmary Road site.

Graphic by Ted Pitts View the location of the Veolia Environmental Services plant.

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By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer Updated 12:14 AM Tuesday, May 5, 2009

WEST CARROLLTON — Veolia is a large international company involved in environmental services, water purification, energy, transportation and more, with outposts in the Dayton area and across the globe.

Veolia took over what had been an Onyx Environmental Services facility, at 4301 Infirmary Road, when Veolia acquired Onyx North America in 2006.

In February 2002, the Ohio EPA issued director’s “findings and orders” to the facility after the company notified the agency that “hazardous waste was offered for transportation as nonhazardous waste.

In September 2002, the OEPA cited the facility when it operated as Onyx Environmental Services.

“Respondent (Onyx) notified Ohio EPA ... that 14 drums of hazardous waste were transported off-site to an unpermitted facility,” the agency wrote.

The EPA inspected the Infirmary Road site and said it found that the company had failed to “manage” a hazardous waste container in a way that prevented it from rupturing or leaking and failed to keep a hazardous waste container closed. The agency also said it found containers improperly marked.

Bill Covell, West Carrollton’s development director, said he is unaware of any citizen complaints regarding the facility. He’s usually the one to receive such complaints.

“I’ve never heard any complaints about anything they do,” Covell said. “They’re a major employer.”

Erica Mattingly, a city of West Carrollton spokeswoman, said the company has 170 local workers.

Mattingly said her records on the Veolia facility go back to 1981 when it operated as Solvent Resource Recovery.

“To my knowledge, not,” Mattingly said when asked if the city has had problems with the plant. “It looks, through our files, that they have filed all the permits necessary through the city.”

In late 2006, Veolia Water took over Vandalia’s Crown Solutions, which serves municipal and industrial clients with water purification and water processing systems.

Veolia operates publicly owned water and sewage systems in Indianapolis and throughout the world, including France.

The company wanted a U.S.-based manufacturing concern, and got that in Crown, Jim Marten, a Crown vice president, told the Dayton Daily News in 2007.

According to the Port Arthur (Texas) News, Veolia drew that town’s attention in 2007 when its facility there agreed to incinerate wastewater generated by the destruction of a VX nerve agent.

Activists questioned the safety of the project, but a federal court dismissed a lawsuit against the plan, according to the newspaper.

Environmental services make up about 32 percent of the company’s operating cash flow, the company says. Water is its biggest division, with 43 percent of cash flow.

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