State environmental regulators Wednesday ordered that Romic Environmental Technologies Corp.'s East Palo Alto facility on Bay Road shut down its bulk hazardous-waste-treatment operations within six months.

"Our department has found that specific areas of Romic's operations pose an unacceptable risk to public health and the environment," California Department of Toxic Substances Control Director Maureen Gorsen said in a prepared statement.

"Therefore, we are prohibiting Romic from handling, treating and storing hazardous bulk liquid waste," Gorsen said.

Romic has been ordered not to handle, treat or store hazardous bulk liquid waste in containers larger than 85 gallons, and not to store bulk liquid waste in tanks, the DTSC reported.

According to the DTSC, its enforcement order charges Romic with unsafe operations, reckless disregard for the risk of serious injury to an employee, and violation of a previous civil judgment brought by the DTSC in April 2005.

The DTSC found Romic culpable for violations in which two employees were seriously burned in June 2004 and March 2006 at the East Palo Alto facility, as well as a 4,000-gallon chemical release at the facility in June 2006.

The DTSC's investigation of Romic is still ongoing, officials said.

— Bay City News Service

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