Chemical Dump Lands Printer in Hot Water
AURORA, CO—A printer here and a Denver man who purchased a semi-trailer from him have been indicted for allegedly violating Colorado’s hazardous waste disposal laws, according to the Denver Post. Maurice Rockney Weiss, who operated Accupress Printing, and Richard Wilmer have been accused of ditching the hazardous materials via a roll-off Dumpster.
Weiss reportedly began storing the waste produced by his print shop in a cargo trailer around 1999, without obtaining necessary permits from the Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment, according to the indictment. In 2006, Wilmer bought the trailer from Weiss, and moved it to his home in Denver.
Wilmer apparently received the trailer filled with the print shop’s waste, but contends he was told by Weiss that the trailer only contained a small amount. Most of the hazardous materials were marked as such, the indictment reads. Wilmer was warned against storing the chemicals on his property, but his solution was to move the materials indoors to a structure on his property. They were eventually dumped on Wilmer’s property by means of the Dumpster, according to the indictment.
The Post reported that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigators visited Wilmer’s property and discovered the hazmats, which were found to be flammable, ignitable, combustible and toxic. The EPA then cleaned up the mess.