ADAMS TWP — Vogel Holdings, a disposal company, and its subsidiaries will pay nearly $700,000 in state fines and has agreed to make facility improvements.

Vogel Holdings — along with Seneca Landfill, Vogel Disposal Service, Tri-County Industries and Valley Waste Service — has settled with the state Department of Environmental Protection for $682,500, which resolves penalties for violations that occurred at their facilities in Butler and Mercer counties.

Ed Vogel Jr., vice president of the company, said this morning that the company and the DEP have been working through these issues for a while.

“We've been going back and forth for a couple of years. It's just cleaning things up,” Vogel said.

The agreements also resolve the appeals of civil penalty assessments issued to Seneca Landfill and Vogel Disposal Service.

These penalties stem from violations of the Solid Waste Management Act and include these:

• Transporting and storing residual waste without DEP approval

• Exceeding permitted daily waste volumes

• Failing to implement odor, erosion and sedimentation control measures

• Transporting and accepting a specific waste after the DEP issued an order prohibiting acceptance of such waste

• Violating waste hauler inspections of transporting leaking loads

Vogel said the company did make mistakes, but none that involved serious environmental breaches. For the most part, he said the mistakes were related to paperwork. He said the company will move forward.

“When you are in business, you're unfortunately going to have issues like this,” Vogel said.

As part of the settlement, Seneca Landfill, Vogel Disposal Service and Tri-County Industries will implement audit programs to report and improve environmental conditions at their respective waste operations. In addition, Seneca Landfill will evaluate its odor control measures at its facility near Mars.

“The penalty reflects the seriousness of the violations committed by the Vogel companies,” DEP Northwest Regional Director John Guth said. “But, these settlements also represent a significant step toward improving environmental compliance across Vogel's waste operations.”

In addition, the DEP and Tri-County Landfill have agreed to resolve the appeal of the DEP's decision to deny a permit to reopen and expand the Tri-County Landfill near Grove City.

The DEP in 2013 denied Vogel a permit for the landfill, and Vogel appealed that decision.

To settle the appeal, the DEP has agreed to review a replacement application for a landfill design that meets the local requirements. The DEP will do a complete new review of the application, including public comment and a compliance review involving the related Vogel subsidiaries.

Vogel said it is surprising that the company will have to deal with the local regulations, saying DEP regulations mostly trump local regulations. This will make the parameters of the project tighter, but he said the company will deal with it.