Western District of Missouri Judge Greg Kays on Jan. 14 appointed a receiver to take over at a pesticide distributor in St. Joseph.
The receiver must take control of facilities that are owned by defendants HPI Products Inc., St. Joe Properties LLC and William Garvey, according to an EPA press release.
The defendants have been said to store thousands of containers of hazardous and nonhazardous wastes since at least 2007, putting an overburdened community of the city at risk, according to the release.
The decision comes after the defendants have repeatedly failed to comply with a 2011 settlement, according to the release.
“This ruling reinforces the joint efforts of the federal government and the state to protect health and enforce environmental laws," EPA Region 7 Administrator Meg McCollister said in the release.
The 2011 settlement was supposed to resolve alleged longstanding violations of state and federal environmental laws, according to the release.
"In 2018, the plaintiffs filed a motion to hold the defendants in contempt and to appoint a receiver to take over the defendants’ operations," the release states. "The motion was granted, but the plaintiffs agreed to pause the order after the defendants pledged to comply, and established and funded an escrow account to pay for compliance efforts. After continued noncompliance with the cleanup efforts, however, the plaintiffs moved the Court last June to reinstate the 2018 order and also asked the Court to freeze the defendants’ assets and prohibit the further generation of waste."
