More than 40 barrels containing hazardous waste may have been illegally dumped in Box Elder County near the Nevada border, Attorney General Paul Van Dam said.
Though Van Dam refused to speculate what the material is, the Deseret News has learned that it is highway paint.The Deseret News has also found that the site is on property belonging to TL Bar Ranch, a subsidiary of Flasher Barricades. The site is in Box Elder County, about 23 miles northeast of Wendover.
Company President Dean Stephens said the incident is being "blown out of proportion."
Acting on a tip from an area resident, investigators searched the site earlier in the day, said Van Dam, who offered few other details during a press conference Monday.
"We don't see things quite like this very often," he said. "This we believe is an activity we want people to be quite aware of." Van Dam asked that Utahns report any suspected illegal dump sites to his office.
Samples of the materials contained in the barrels are now being tested by the state Department of Environmental Quality. Any charges are pending the results of those tests. Meanwhile, the site has been secured.
"I won't speculate on what it is," Van Dam told reporters. He also declined to give a specific location for the site where the barrels were found or to say what owns the property. The site is within 100 yards of at least one home, as well as near a road. The barrels were located in a depression about 6 feet deep but were not buried.
Stephens said the barrels are not leaking and are being stored temporarily while his company prepares to "rework" the paint to make it usable.
Stephens, who has been in the highway painting business for 32 years, said he made no secret of the storage and doesn't believe it was illegal, adding that he's been trying for 21/2 years to find out what constitutes hazardous waste.