Veolia Environmental Services Technical Solutions, Phoenix, AZ
Facility Description
Veolia Environmental Services Technical Solutions (Veolia) operates a polychlorinated biphenyl storage and processing facility located at 5736 West Jefferson Street in Phoenix, Arizona. Veolia manages the receipt, manifesting, storage, processing, transportation, and recordkeeping of waste containing PCBs. Veolia's processing operations include draining and taking apart certain electrical equipment (e.g.: bushings and cables), recovering the metals from electrical equipment, and cleaning the metals for off-site recycling.
EPA’s Role
EPA regulates PCB activities under the Toxic Substances Control Act Enables EPA to track the 75,000 industrial chemicals currently produced or imported into the U.S. EPA repeatedly screens these chemicals and can require reporting or testing of those that may pose an environmental or human-health hazard. EPA can ban the manufacture and import of those chemicals that pose an unreasonable risk. (TSCA). All facilities that treat, store or dispose of PCBs are required to obtain a TSCA Approval, or permit. PCB operations at Veolia are currently taking place in Buildings 2, 3, and 4. These PCB operations are regulated under TSCA. Veolia is currently operating under the TSCA Approval issued by the EPA in 2015.
Facility Layout
The facility consists of four approximately 8,000 square-foot buildings, and an approximately 1,000 square-foot hazardous waste storage structure located north of Building 1.
Building 1 and the hazardous waste storage building are dedicated to hazardous waste processing and storage activities, which are regulated under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and are overseen by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Buildings 2, 3, and 4 are where PCB activities are carried out.
PCB activities are regulated under the TSCA and are overseen by the U.S. EPA.
Summary of PCB Operations at Veolia
Electrical equipment containing PCBs and other PCB waste are generally shipped to the facility by truck. The receiving buildings contain truck bays, or below-grade areas, where the truck can be staged. This allows for easy loading or off-loading of equipment or materials, since the bays allow for the ground surface to be level with the truck floor. Once a shipment of PCB materials arrives at the facility, the manifests (or shipping papers) are reviewed for accuracy. The equipment or materials are then off-loaded from the trucks and inspected. The warehouse buildings where PCB containers are staged have large roll-up doors to allow for easy transfer of equipment and materials into the buildings. PCBs equipment and materials are staged in designated areas within the buildings that meet TSCA storage requirements.
PCB processing is conducted on certain types of electrical equipment containing PCB liquid. The first step in processing involves draining PCB liquids from the equipment. The emptied equipment is flushed, disassembled, and metal parts are recovered. Liquid PCBs are stored in containers in designated storage areas based on the PCB concentration of the liquid. The PCBs are later disposed off-site at the appropriate disposal facility. Recoverable metal parts are soaked in a decontamination fluid; rinsed off; tested to ensure adequate decontamination; and if below the required PCB limit (10 µg/100 cm2), shipped off-site for recycling.
Documents
If you experience a problem reading a document with assistive technology, please contact us.
- EPA Permit ID AZ0000337360: Veolia Environmental Services Technical Solutions L.L.C, Phoenix, AZ (pdf)
- Final Statement of Basis: Veolia Environmental Services Technical Solutions LLC, Phoenix, AZ (pdf)
- PCB Approval Decision and Response to Public Comments: Veolia Environmental Services Technical Solutions LLC, Phoenix, AZ (pdf)