You are the site environmental manager at an industrial facility, and you are tasked with identifying vendors and key terms and conditions that should go into a waste transport and disposal contract. You are aware of other companies that have given hazardous wastes to transporters who simply dumped it on the side of the road and pocketed the profits. Others took the waste to the local municipal landfill and dumped it in the mix.
Later on, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found these sites and declared them hazardous waste sites that needed to be remediated. The trusting companies that took the “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” approach spent millions of dollars cleaning these sites to EPA remediation standards.
As the site environmental manager, identify key terms and conditions you would recommend to your contract attorney that need to be addressed in the agreement to be signed between your facility and the hazardous waste transporter. Include a description of each item to accomplish and the potential adverse effect to the finances and reputation of the facility if the item is not followed. Do you feel this is sufficient to address the condition? Why, or why not?