OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality has fined a California-based company $2.16 million for allegedly violating state solid waste rules when it dumped trash from Kansas at a Major County landfill. The fine was imposed on Waste Connections Inc., which operates the Red Carpet landfill in Major County. Records show the company has been importing about 1,850 tons of waste per day at the landfill since September, when the state of Kansas closed a landfill near Wichita.
The company has a contract with Wichita to dispose of solid waste from the city and county. Waste Connections owns another landfill in Kansas but chose to use the Oklahoma landfill.
Jim Little, vice president of engineering at the company's main office in Folsom, Calif., said Friday the company is still importing waste from Kansas.
''At this point we've sort of got an agreement with the department that we're not going to comment on it,'' Little said.
Oklahoma law requires that a disposal plan be approved by DEQ before out-of-state waste in excess of 200 tons per day in deposited in an Oklahoma landfill. The plan must identify possible hazardous waste that may be included with more common household solid waste.
The company was originally fined $225,000 in January and ordered to cease bringing in waste until a plan was approved. DEQ said the company ignored the order.
''Our staff has tried for months to help this company comply with Oklahoma law,'' said DEQ executive director Mark Coleman. ''However, the company fought complying with the law at every step of the way.
''They continued to bring in over a thousand tons of waste everyday, despite a direct order to stop until they could show how they would exclude hazardous waste from their shipments,'' Coleman said.
The company's original disposal plan was inadequate, DEQ said. A second plan was submitted this spring and was approved by DEQ on June 14.
The plan requires that Waste Connections notify its customers that waste cannot include hazardous waste. The company must also verify that hazardous waste is not included in the solid waste.
The fine was calculated at $10,000 per day for each day the violation occurred, Coleman said. The updated fine covers 216 days of operation without the safeguards in the approved plan.