Volvo was one of SC’s biggest industrial recruits. But it ran afoul of state agency

Volvo was one of South Carolina’s biggest industrial prizes in 2015, drawing praise for the jobs it would bring and the care it would take to protect the environment.

But the company recently ran into trouble with state regulators, who identified multiple environmental violations at the auto factory in Berkeley County. On a visit to the plant, inspectors with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control found mislabeled drums of waste, incomplete emergency response plans and containers that did not show the hazards of the contents inside.

Now, DHEC has fined Volvo $10,000, its first fine for hazardous waste violations since arriving in South Carolina. Volvo paid the fine this week and has fixed the problems, according to the agency.

In an email, a Volvo spokesman said the company “takes these matters seriously and is committed to compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Upon notification of these violations, we promptly corrected the issues.’’

Volvo is not known to have contaminated the environment around the plant, since the violations focus more on procedures that it must follow to prevent accidents or other problems. Still, the issues were enough to spark action by DHEC at Volvo.

The Swedish automaker is a major employer in South Carolina, with about 1,500 workers. The company’s South Carolina plant was its first in the United States. The company said it would likely employ 4,000 people at the $500 million plant by 2030.

State economic development officials enthusiastically announced nine years ago that Volvo had chosen a site in South Carolina over Georgia for a new plant. At the time, the company agreed to protect 2,500 acres of land in the Four Holes Swamp-Beidler Forest area in exchange for filling up to 195 acres of wetlands for the plant.

The company and the state Department of Commerce worked with conservation groups to protect the land, in exchange for environmentalists agreeing not to oppose permits for the project. The Commerce Department reportedly spent $12 million on the environmental protection effort.

The Four Holes Swamp-Beidler Forest area is between Columbia and Charleston. Beidler Forest is a publicly accessible nature preserve of tall trees, deep woodlands and wildlife-filled swamps run by the Audubon society.

An enforcement document made public last week by DHEC identified 10 types of violations of the state’s hazardous management law at the Volvo plant in Ridgeville.

Among them was a failure to inspect areas where waste could accumulate; a failure to include an evacuation plan for some personnel in the case of an emergency; a failure to mark containers to show their hazards; and a failure to keep a list of emergency contact personnel updated.

Hazardous waste is refuse created at industrial plants that carries a stronger threat to the public than household garbage. It includes material such as waste chemicals, paint, dyes and solvents, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

While the Volvo violations might be considered “paperwork violations,’’ DHEC said the hazardous waste rules are in place for good reasons.

Failure to label containers properly, for instance, makes it difficult for emergency response personnel to learn “the potential hazards associated with the containers,’’ DHEC said in an email Monday. “If a spill or release occurs, then the employee or emergency responder would not know the proper precautions to take in managing the event if the hazard is not known.’’

Keeping information updated about emergency contacts is important so that emergency personnel will know how much hazardous waste is in the plant and where it is stored, the email said. A document known as a contingency plan is supposed to show what emergency procedures have been developed and how they will be used if a hazardous waste emergency occurs, the email said.