Comprehensive Environmental Solutions, Inc., Dearborn
On October 4, 2005, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
entered an administrative consent order (Consent Order) with Comprehensive
Environmental Solutions, Inc. (CESI), regarding its facility at 6011 Wyoming,
Dearborn, Michigan. Between January 1998 and March 2004, CESI was
inspected on several occasions by the WHMD and the Air Quality Division (AQD)
of the DEQ and by the Wayne County Department of Environment (WCDOE) and
the Wayne County Air Quality Management Department (WCAQMD). During
these inspections, numerous violations of Part 31, Water Resources Protection;
Part 55, Air Pollution Control; Part 111, Hazardous Waste Management; Part
115, Solid Waste Management; and Part 121, Liquid Industrial Wastes, of the
Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, as amended
(NREPA), and the Used Oil Management Standards, Title 40 of the Code of
Federal Regulations, Part 279, were identified. The DEQ, the WCDOE, and the
WCAQMD verbally and formally communicated the nature of the continuing
violations at the CESI facility and the actions necessary to bring the Disposal
Area into compliance with the NREPA on numerous occasions since 1998. In
July 2004 the DEQ issued a Notice of Violation to CESI and proposed the
Consent Order to resolve and settle the ongoing violations.
CESI occupies approximately 19 acres of land and is operated as a used oil
reclamation and nonhazardous liquid industrial waste processing facility for
materials, including industrial waste oils, oil-contaminated waste, wastewater,
waste sludge, and other solid waste. Operations at CESI include processing pits
for solid waste processing (i.e., treatment and solidification), wastewater holding
tanks for recovered fluid from the processing pits, a wastewater treatment system
for treatment and discharge, a used oil tank farm on the west portion of the
property consisting of 12 tanks with approximately 10 million gallons of storage
capacity, and a used oil processing system. There is approximately 9.5 million
gallons of used oil, wastewater, and sludge in the tanks in the tank farm. The
proportion of these materials in the various tanks is unknown. These materials
and other liquid and solid wastes are also stored in as many as 2,617 drums and
totes at the facility. Reclaimed oil is sold for commercial use. Treated process
wastewater is currently discharged under permit to the Detroit Water and
Sewerage Department sewer. Solid waste is disposed of at a licensed Type II
landfill.
The Consent Order provides for a compliance program for CESI to obtain a
construction permit and operating license under Part 115 for its solid waste
processing activities after executing a host community agreement with the city of
Dearborn and being included in the Wayne County Solid Waste Management
Plan (County Plan). The Consent Order also provides for a schedule for the
proper characterization, including an updated waste analysis plan, and disposal
of on-site stockpiled wastes stored in drums, containers, totes, and the tank farm,
and their proper management (i.e., storage, inventory management,
recordkeeping, and personnel training) and requires CESI to provide financial
assurance to the State, commensurate with its financial abilities, for performance
of the compliance activities under the Consent Order. The Consent Order further
requires that CESI implement the approved Pollution Incident Prevention Plan
and comply with the terms and conditions of the Permit to Install issued by AQD
and not cause odorous emissions in violation of Rule 901 of the Part 55
administrative rules. Under the Consent Order, CESI is to submit a monthly
report to the WHMD on the activities required by the compliance program. CESI
agreed to pay the sum of $100,000 in settlement of the DEQ’s claim for civil fines
under a schedule, to reimburse the DEQ for $4,000 in surveillance and
enforcement costs, and to be subject to stipulated penalties. CESI agreed to
cease all solid waste processing operations and to cease accepting any solid
waste at the facility if it fails to obtain a host community agreement, be included
in the County Plan, or obtain a solid waste disposal area construction permit and
operating license in accordance with the schedule in the Consent Order.
This multi-divisional case allows a return to compliance under an enforceable
schedule by a company of limited financial means. The Consent Order resolves
and settles long-standing operations of a solid waste processing plant by CESI
and its predecessor owners, without a construction permit and operating license,
as well as other significant violations.