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CLEARFIELD — A billowing fire Sunday at a Stone Castle recycling warehouse is just one of several the company has suffered over the years, and now the Environmental Protection Agency says the owner has abandoned an estimated 7.5 million pounds of hazardous waste across the state.
According to an EPA statement, cease-and-desist orders were issued at sites in Clearfield, Parowan and Cedar City, requiring closure and cleanup, due to "continued egregious non-compliance."
Among ongoing issues, documents obtained by KSL from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality state that Stone Castle mislabeled boxes of glass from old CRT televisions and monitors in trying to dispose of them at a landfill in Tooele County.
Allan Moore, environmental program manager at the Utah agency, said Stone Castle's troubles are indicative of a larger nationwide problem that all started as consumers switched to fancier flat-screen HDTVs.
"The (older) TVs have a lot of lead and other materials in them that leach in landfill environments," Moore said.
Recyclers like Stone Castle used to be able to sell off CRT glass to companies that would melt down and reuse the materials.
"Since there's an overabundance, they're charging for the glass," Moore said.
Stone Castle's string of fires started in 2008, with a facility on Pennsylvania Avenue in Ogden. Owner Anthony Stoddard later moved those operations to the Freeport Center in Clearfield, which caught fire Sunday. Recycling centers in Parowan and Cedar City burned in March and July, respectively.
Causes for each fire remain undetermined. However, EPA regulations require that CRT televisions and monitors be stored indoors, partly because glass from projection tubes inside can magnify heat from the sun. Outdoor storage can also allow lead to seep into the groundwater. Documents from the Department of Environmental Quality show that Stoddard was ordered to move all materials indoors by the end of March 2014, but they indicate he never complied.
Adding to Stoddard's troubles, he was arrested Thursday in Iron County. A probable-cause affidavit states that he tried to sell and salvage parts from vehicles that did not belong to him.
Stoddard is also the subject of a lawsuit, filed on behalf of his landlord in Clearfield. A complaint states that Stoddard owes more than $50,000 in monthly lease payments.
An EPA cleanup is tentatively planned for the Parowan site in mid-November. The Department of Environmental Quality continues to work with city governments in Clearfield and Cedar City to remove materials there.
