Dufour Seminars & Training To Present California Hazardous & Universal Waste Management Information April 24, 2017

SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- James T. Dufour, a recognized environmental law expert and defense counsel will be presenting a webinar on California hazardous and universal waste management requirements on April 24, 2017. This program is designed to meet the basic annual training requirement for all hazardous waste generators in California, and advise participants on current enforcement trends, best management practices and best deals in waste management. Dufour has been teaching this class in a classroom setting for decades, and now as a webinar. His participants have universally avoided the types of costly mistakes made by many corporations and other organizations that have been harshly prosecuted by federal, state and local regulators—yes, in California any one or more of these agencies can enforce hazardous waste regulations in the state.

Dumpster diving cases are expensive, but easy to prevent.

Since 2009, corporations have been prosecuted in multi-jurisdiction violations in state court for permitting illegal disposal of hazardous, universal, and medical wastes (spent pharmaceuticals) into dumpsters. Examples of businesses sustaining such expensive and embarrassing enforcement based on court records and press releases include:

The latest trend in enforcement involves electronic device and scrap metal management and recycling—most notably, a $450,000 penalty against Apple Computer in December 2016.

Unrecognized Differences in Requirements

The fact these cases are so easily prosecuted in California is because the state's hazardous, universal and medical waste laws and regulations are substantially different from those of U.S. EPA and other states—a situation not recognized by many businesses. Important examples leading to the above prosecutions include:

• Containers of any hazardous substance are not considered empty until drip-dry (most common violation, chlorine bleach bottles).
  
• Universal waste, when illegally disposed is hazardous waste, includes not only all U.S. EPA universal wastes, but alkaline batteries, any electronic device or its components, and aerosol cans with any pressurized contents.
  
• Similarly-regulated medical wastes include surplus or waste pharmaceutical products.

These are but a few of the substantial differences in California's hazardous waste regulatory regime, but, what makes enforcement commonplace is delegation by the state to 81 local "Unified Program" Agencies in cities and counties, multiplying the number of enforcers to several thousand, resulting in over 40,000 inspections of the approximately 90,000 establishments generating hazardous waste based on 2013 data released by Cal/EPA in 2015. Making matters worse is there is no Conditionally-Exempt Small Quantity Generator relief in state regulations.

Participants in Dufour's training programs know this information, and have avoided similar onerous enforcement actions.

The webinar covers regulatory requirements for California generators, and practical compliance and enforcement avoidance strategies meeting the required annual training obligation. Participants will receive an electronic PowerPoint presentation with hyperlinks to standards and references.

For more information or registration, visit dufourseminars.com or call (916) 553-3111.

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SOURCE Dufour Seminars & Training