C6-Zero pays $106K for worker safety violations

A fledgling shingle-recycling business accused of skirting regulations and endangering its employees — ultimately resulting in an explosion that injured nine workers — has paid its past-due fine for workplace violations.

C6-Zero had agreed more than a year ago to pay a $95,700 fine to the Iowa Occupational Health and Safety Administration, which had documented 15 workplace violations at the company’s Marengo facility after an explosion and fire there in December 2022. When the company didn’t initially pay, the Iowa Department of Inspection, Appeals and Licensing sued.

That led to a district court order in September 2023 that required the company to pay the fine amount and interest at the rate of 10 percent each year. Last week, “because of the dogged pursuit of this matter,” C6-Zero paid nearly $106,000, the inspections department said.

“The company may still be facing consequences from other authorities,” the department said in a statement to The Gazette.

A spokesman for C6-Zero said Tuesday he no longer is representing the company.

Until recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had overseen cleanup of the site. In a June letter, the agency noted the waste that was released by the December 2022 explosion “has been properly disposed of.” Last week the EPA said it had concluded its oversight of the cleanup.

It’s unclear what further action the agency might take. The EPA inspected the site for violations of the Clean Air Act, but it declined to reveal the results of the investigation.

“EPA does not discuss the details of potential enforcement actions,” said Kellen Ashford, an EPA spokesperson.

State regulators plan to evaluate the situation and resume their litigation with the company, which was paused while EPA oversaw cleanup, said Tammie Krausman, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The department issued an emergency order days after the incident that was meant to remedy the immediate public health and environmental threats but foreshadowed potential fines.

“The DNR reserves the right to impose, or to ask the Attorney General to pursue, civil penalties for the violations referenced in this emergency order and for any other violations that have yet to be discovered,” the order said.

The department sued C6-Zero last year for more than $1.5 million to recoup the cost of damaged equipment of firefighters and others who responded to the incident and for the cost of removing contaminated water from a drainage basin near the site.

The Iowa DNR dismissed the lawsuit in May because C6-Zero’s insurance company paid about $1.4 million to settle the claims, court records show.