By Kathryn Reed

A 2010 state inspection of Heavenly Mountain Resort’s upper shop facilities determined the ski resort was not in compliance with hazardous waste regulations.

“There was no accident, spill or release that triggered this. It was about the containment facility not being up to code,” Russ Pecoraro, spokesman for Heavenly, told Lake Tahoe News.

Violations included:

• Lack of controls to prevent spillage and overflow of the used-oil tank.

• Failure to have a tank holding used oil assessed and inspected.

• Failure to provide refresher training to the emergency coordinator managing hazardous waste.

• Failure to maintain secondary containment for the used oil tank, and failure to provide secondary containment to pipes connected to the tank.

At no time was Lake Tahoe threatened or any other water source on the mountain, according to Pecoraro.

The infractions resulted in the resort paying the Department of Toxic Substance Control $94,000 in fines and $26,000 to reimburse the state for its costs.

Prior to the fall 2010 inspection Heavenly had not been advised that it needed to make changes to the waste oil containment section of the site. The other part of this site is a fuel station. But the two have different overseers from the state.

“We did not know we were out of compliance,” Pecoraro said.

When the facility was built in the early 1990s it met the regulations of the day set by El Dorado County, Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board and the U.S. Forest Service.

But rules change.

Besides now being in compliance, Heavenly says it has a better, open dialog with the state so something like this should not happen in the future.

—-

Here is a copy of the Heavenly settlement.