VINEYARD -- A small Vineyard chemicals manufacturer that was sued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for alleged violations of federal clean air and hazardous waste laws after a fire broke out at the plant in July 1992, causing 120 nearby businesses and homes to be evacuated, is again being sued by the federal agency.

Parish Chemical Co. of Vineyard and Uintah Pharmaceutical Corp., which owns the 2.5-acre plant at 145 N. Geneva Road, were accused of failing to comply with federal regulations on hazardous waste management and storage after several site inspections necessitated a major cleanup by the EPA in April 2008 to reduce the threat of another fire outbreak, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. The 1992 fire caused an estimated $5 million in damages.

The EPA is suing to recover more than $646,000 in costs for cleaning up hazardous materials at the Parish plant plus civil penalties of up to $32,500 a day for each violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act that occurred between March 16, 2004 and Jan. 12, and $37,500 a day for each violation that occurred after Jan. 12.

"The company generates waste from making organic chemicals. If properly managed, the risk is minimal, but in April 2008, it got to a point where we were very concerned about the volume of hazardous materials that weren't properly stored or disposed of," said Tom Sitz, senior enforcement attorney for the EPA.

"Some of the materials we took out had to be detonated with assistance from the Utah County Explosive Ordinance Disposal team because these were shock-sensitive materials," he said.

Parish Chemical officials didn't return calls for comment on Tuesday's lawsuit.

The suit said several hundred containers, including 55-gallon drums and 300-gallon plastic totes, many of which "contained waste contents unknown to Parish," had to be removed by the EPA in the 2008 cleanup. Some of the drums were "open, unlabeled, leaking and corroding," the suit said.

In addition, an inspection on June 2 found that at least 185 drums and totes of hazardous wastes were past the 90-day storage limit, the suit said. Some of the substances found at the facility include methylene chloride, acetone, dimethyl formamide, petroleum ether, tetrahydrofuran, dichloroethyl ether, benzene, toluene, perchloric acid and phosphorus pentachloride.

Other alleged violations include storage of hazardous waste without a permit, failure to have liability insurance for accidents, failure to have adequate funds for cleanup efforts in the event of a plant closure, failure to perform air emissions tank assessments, inadequate evaluation of storage tank integrity and inadequate labeling of hazardous waste containers and tanks.

The suit said the company was also unable to provide training records for employees managing the waste, and written job descriptions for each waste management worker were also unavaliable.

"The neglect discovered at Parish Chemical represents a continuing threat to the safety of employees, nearby residents and the environment," said Eddie Sierra, EPA's Assistant Regional Administrator for Enforcement in Denver said in a statement Wednesday. "Our goal is to compel this company to comply with all applicable environmental and health and safety requirements."

After the 1992 fire, the EPA sued Parish over the improper management of hazardous waste and to recover the costs of cleaning up the plant. The EPA said it found unsecured gas cylinders as well as improper storage of water-reactive metals, hydrazine, nitromethane and other chemicals. The violations allegedly continued for several months after the fire.

In 1999, Parish Chemical agreed to make improvements at its Vineyard plant and pay a $100,000 penalty.

Fire investigators ruled the fire broke out in the research laboratory at Parish Chemical around noon on July 24, 1992. The fire burned for five days while police and fire officials tried to figure out how to extinguish the blaze without disturbing chemicals stored in the building. Firefighters eventually used foam to smother the fire. Orem City's fire report listed the cause as unknown.