Saint-Gobain fined for violations at Worcester site

File photo Saint-Gobain's Worcester campus

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State regulators have assessed a $6,900 penalty against Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. for violating hazardous waste regulations at its Worcester coating facility.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) said it found during a fall 2012 inspection that the French manufacturing company had accumulated hazardous waste for a longer period than is allowed. The violation didn’t jeopardize the safety of employees or the community, said Saint-Gobain spokesman William Seiberlich.

As part of an agreement with the DEP, Saint-Gobain will pay a $1,730 fine and purchase four iPads for the Worcester Fire Department that will allow first-responders to access a chemical database website while in the field.

“The company, once notified of the violation, took steps quickly to return to compliance and proposed the (iPad purchases),” Lee Dillard Adams, director of MassDEP’s Central Region Office in Worcester, said in a statement.

Saint-Gobain said it has increased its waste management oversight process by hiring a full-time environmental, health and safety coordinator.

“We determined that one cause for the pickup delay was our overreliance on a single waste processing company,” Seiberlich said. “We have added a second supplier.”

Saint-Gobain employs roughly 2,000 people at manufacturing and research and development sites in Worcester, Northborough and Devens.

Updated at 2 p.m. with comments from Saint-Gobain.