ROME – Premier Aviation Overhaul Center in Rome has pleaded guilty to an environmental crime and they will have to pay a $40,000 fine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Premier Aviation has admitted that in February 2014, one or more of its employees placed large sheets of plastic containing hazardous chromium waste into a large trash compactor without updating the labels on the trash compactor to disclose that hazardous waste was inside it.

Premier Aviation had stripped paint from an older airplane and let it sit in the trash compactor for two weeks, and the chromium levels were 23 times higher than the legal limit.

As part of the company’s guilty plea, the company has to pay a $40,000 fine, and they’ve agreed to provide the EPA with quarterly statistics specifying the hazardous waste that they’ve generated and disposed. They will also provide waste and emergency response training to all of their employees who handle paint or other hazardous waste materials.

The EPA and DEC will also inspect Premier Aviation’s Rome facility and its compliance with the terms of the plea agreement at any time, without notice, until Sept. 30, 2018.