Clean Harbors is facing a $602,938 penalty for a January incident in which a worker died at an Ohio facility. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a news release Monday that the company committed several violations, including three considered "willful.”

Federal investirgators said the worker was directed to enter and collect samples from the interior of a railroad tanker car at Emerald Transformer, a business in Twinsburg. The worker was wearing protective equipment, including a respirator, but he fell in as he descended and became unresponsive. Subsequent tests showed oxygen levels in the tank were as low as 5%.

Emergency services were called and pronounced 35-year-old Dalion Ambler dead on the scene, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. 

OSHA cited Clean Harbors for failing to ventilate the rail car, test the environment or use non-entry rescue equipment.

The federal agency has performed six investigations into Clean Harbors for possible workplace safety violations in the past five years. Four of those investigations remain incomplete, including an investigation into a fatality or catastrophic event at a California facility in 2023.

The company's total recordable incident rate was 0.63 in 2023, the lowest in Clean Harbors' history, according to its most recent sustainability report. The company had previously set a goal to lower its TRIR rate below 1 by 2030, which it achieved in 2022. 

Federal data showed a year-over-year increase in fatalities for waste and recycling collection workers and related solid waste workers in 2023. In 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded four fatalities at sewage treatment facilities, which is the category for the recent Clean Harbors incident. In 2023, the agency tweaked how it categorized such workers, but recorded eight fatalities for such workers in the private sector.