UPS, ATHENS

EPA ECHO's exporter snapshot for UPS Athens, TN (facility ID 110038911452, NAICS 492110) records zero formal noncompliance quarters across the 24-month window ending 2026-05-06 [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The $2,120,000 penalty shown in that same export is derived, not directly assessed at Athens. It is produced by pro-rating the parent UPS five-year enforcement total against the 24-month review period, and the arithmetic draws its weight almost entirely from a single corporate settlement concluded years before the window opened [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. That settlement is the October 19, 2022 federal consent agreement under which United Parcel Service, Inc. agreed to a $5.3 million civil penalty and a national compliance plan covering 1,160 UPS facilities for alleged Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) violations [source: https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/commercial/articles/1541549/ups-to-pay-5-3m-nationwide-hazardous-waste-epa-penalty]. EPA's accompanying release identifies the conduct at issue as alleged failures of universal-waste, used-oil, and hazardous-waste management practices [source: https://epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide]. The facility holds no active permits in the export. The most recent permit-related action is dated 2025-03-18 [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Local risk surfaced on December 4, 2024. Fire damaged the Athens sortation building that evening, prompting UPS to redirect affected customers to their original shippers for replacement parcels [source: https://www.local3news.com/local-news/fire-ravages-ups-facility-in-athens-tn/article_6136d614-b270-11ef-b799-6fe0f97a508e.html]. The next day's follow-up coverage documented community concern over hazardous-material content within destroyed packages and captured the reaction of a retired UPS employee [source: https://www.local3news.com/local-news/retired-ups-employee-reacts-to-the-athens-location-fire/article_1b3d089c-b28c-11ef-bac2-67223542c637.html]. One data gap warrants explicit note: the 0.0 EJ index reported by ECHO reflects missing EJScreen demographic columns in the export, not a measured determination of low environmental justice burden [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

The 24-month review window opens May 6, 2024. Events before that date set the corporate compliance backdrop against which the Athens record is measured.

On June 16, 2021, EPA Region 6 announced a settlement with United Parcel Service, Inc. and TForce Freight, Inc. requiring corrective action at hazardous-waste-handling sites across Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas [source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/united-parcel-service-inc-ups-settlement]. Sixteen months later — on October 19, 2022 — EPA broadened that posture to the national scale. The resulting $5.3 million consent agreement and compliance plan covered 1,160 UPS sites [source: https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/commercial/articles/1541549/ups-to-pay-5-3m-nationwide-hazardous-waste-epa-penalty]. The October 2022 release describes the alleged conduct in specific operational terms: training, inventory, and labeling practices for damaged-shipment universal waste, used oil, and hazardous waste [source: https://epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide].

Within the window, ECHO records no formal quarter of significant noncompliance for the Athens facility. The $2,120,000 figure is allocation arithmetic against the parent five-year penalty — not a discrete local enforcement event [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. On December 4, 2024, fire damaged the Athens package-sorting operation. Local reporting that day described the emergency response and disruption to outbound parcels [source: https://www.local3news.com/local-news/fire-ravages-ups-facility-in-athens-tn/article_6136d614-b270-11ef-b799-6fe0f97a508e.html]. December 5, 2024 coverage followed with a retired UPS employee's account of the damage and UPS's customer-redirection guidance for shipments lost in the blaze [source: https://www.local3news.com/local-news/retired-ups-employee-reacts-to-the-athens-location-fire/article_1b3d089c-b28c-11ef-bac2-67223542c637.html]. The most recent permit-related action in the Athens ECHO record is dated March 18, 2025. The export carries no corresponding violation, inspection, or penalty event tied to that date [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Through May 6, 2026, the export carries no fresh formal action against the Athens record. Two limitations bound that conclusion. First, ECHO's exporter ZIP does not capture all state-program enforcement events, and the EJScreen indicator columns for this row are blank, producing the reported EJ index average of 0.0 [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Second, the $2,120,000 value is derived — formula: viol_24mo=min(qtrs_with_nc,8); penalty_24mo=total_5yr*(24/60) — so it allocates older corporate penalties rather than recording a discrete fine assessed at Athens during the 24 months under review. The primary driver is the 2022 nationwide settlement [source: https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/commercial/articles/1541549/ups-to-pay-5-3m-nationwide-hazardous-waste-epa-penalty]. EPA records confirm the Athens site falls within the nationwide compliance plan's facility scope but is not separately enumerated as a violator in ECHO's quarterly noncompliance flag [source: https://epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide].

EPA Region 6 RCRA Settlement — June 16, 2021. Respondents United Parcel Service, Inc. and TForce Freight, Inc. agreed to corrective action at facilities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act authorities; EPA records show the agreement required compliance planning across the regional fleet [source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/united-parcel-service-inc-ups-settlement]. The Athens, TN facility falls outside Region 6 and does not appear in the Region 6 docket. The action is recorded here for corporate-context completeness.

National RCRA Consent Agreement — October 19, 2022. United Parcel Service, Inc. agreed to pay more than $5.3 million to resolve alleged hazardous-waste regulatory violations at 1,160 UPS sites across the United States [source: https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/commercial/articles/1541549/ups-to-pay-5-3m-nationwide-hazardous-waste-epa-penalty]. EPA's October 19, 2022 release frames the alleged violations around four operational requirements: identification, accumulation-time tracking, container labeling, and training for managing damaged shipments containing hazardous materials, used oil, and universal waste [source: https://epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide]. Statute of authority: RCRA Subtitle C. Program: hazardous waste (RCRA). Outcome: a $5.3 million monetary penalty plus a corporate compliance plan covering UPS package-handling and freight facilities nationwide. The Athens, TN site falls within that compliance plan's scope.

Athens-specific 24-month entries. ECHO records no Clean Water Act (CWA) NPDES violations, no Clean Air Act (CAA) Title V or NSR violations, and no fresh RCRA enforcement events tied to facility ID 110038911452 within the window [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The most recent permit-related action is dated March 18, 2025. No corresponding violation entry accompanies it [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Local non-enforcement event — December 4, 2024. Fire damaged the Athens UPS facility. The event does not appear in current ECHO data as an enforcement action [source: https://www.local3news.com/local-news/fire-ravages-ups-facility-in-athens-tn/article_6136d614-b270-11ef-b799-6fe0f97a508e.html]. Coverage on December 5, 2024 reported customer impact and UPS's instruction that affected recipients contact shippers for refunds or replacements [source: https://www.local3news.com/local-news/retired-ups-employee-reacts-to-the-athens-location-fire/article_1b3d089c-b28c-11ef-bac2-67223542c637.html]. No regulatory case opening tied to the fire appears in the bundled ECHO export through May 6, 2026 [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Only one facility — UPS Athens, TN (FRS ID 110038911452) — falls within the ups-athens scope, so the requested top-five-by-EJ-or-violation-count analysis resolves to a single substantive entry. Three sibling UPS corporate roll-ups from ECHO's separate entity records are included below for comparison.

UPS Athens — Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. NAICS 492110 (Couriers and Express Delivery Services). The ECHO record shows zero formal noncompliance quarters in 24 months and zero active permits, with the most recent permit action dated March 18, 2025 [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. EPA records place the site within the 1,160-facility scope of the October 2022 nationwide RCRA consent agreement [source: https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/commercial/articles/1541549/ups-to-pay-5-3m-nationwide-hazardous-waste-epa-penalty]. Local press identifies the December 4, 2024 fire as the most recent material on-site event documented for this location [source: https://www.local3news.com/local-news/fire-ravages-ups-facility-in-athens-tn/article_6136d614-b270-11ef-b799-6fe0f97a508e.html].

Reference roll-up #1 — UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC (UPS): 11 facilities, 8 noncompliance quarters in 24 months, $10,640,000 derived 24-month penalty [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Reference roll-up #2 — UNITED PARCEL SERVICES: 10 facilities, 6 noncompliance quarters, $6,424,160 derived penalty [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Reference roll-up #3 — UNITED PARCEL SVC: 16 facilities, 6 noncompliance quarters, $5,760,000 derived penalty [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. All three are sibling ECHO entity records for the same parent — United Parcel Service, Inc. — not separate companies. They reflect the parent's segmented appearance in the ECHO master through differing legal-name strings and FRS aggregations, not distinct corporate ownership.

ECHO returns no top_pollutants array for facility 110038911452. That absence is expected: NAICS 492110 courier operations do not file TRI Form R disclosures and do not hold NPDES major permits at the parcel-sortation tier [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The relevant pollutant profile comes instead from the categorical hazardous-waste streams named in the 2022 EPA national consent agreement — universal waste (batteries, lamps, mercury-containing equipment, and certain pesticides), used oil, and damaged-shipment hazardous waste [source: https://epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide].

Two of those streams carry distinct physical hazard profiles. Universal-waste lamps are a known mercury-vapor exposure pathway when broken in transit. Lithium-bearing universal-waste batteries carry both heavy-metal and ignition risk within the consent-agreement scope [source: https://epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide].

Used oil presents a different set of concerns. At sortation hubs, it generates polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbon and trace-metal exposure pathways through soil and stormwater when drum integrity, secondary containment, or transfer practices are not maintained. The 2022 consent agreement covers training and inventory practices intended to constrain those pathways [source: https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/commercial/articles/1541549/ups-to-pay-5-3m-nationwide-hazardous-waste-epa-penalty].

Damaged-shipment hazardous waste is the most heterogeneous category — chemicals, aerosols, biologicals, and consumer products that arrive intact and become regulated waste only when packaging fails in transit. EPA's October 2022 release ties UPS's training and labeling allegations directly to that damaged-shipment stream [source: https://epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide]. The EJ implication at Athens is data-limited: ECHO's EJ index for this row is 0.0 because EJScreen indicator columns are blank in the export, not because the surrounding census block group has been measured at zero burden [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Inside NAICS 492110, the ups-athens single-facility row sits well below all three corporate roll-up records on both violation count (0 vs. 6–8) and derived 24-month penalty ($2.12M vs. $5.76M–$10.64M). The three peer rows are sibling ECHO entries for the same parent — United Parcel Service, Inc. — not independent competitors. That structure means the comparison shows how the parent's enforcement footprint distributes across legal-name variants in the ECHO master, not how UPS Athens stacks against a non-UPS courier [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. EJ index averages are 0.0 across all four rows. That is consistent with EJScreen demographic columns being blank in the courier-NAICS export, not with a measured finding of zero environmental burden [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

The research bundle contains no SEC 10-K Item 1A excerpt for United Parcel Service, Inc. No SEC EDGAR URL appears in the supplied sources, so a directly cited 10-K disclosure cannot be reproduced here. The closest forward-looking environmental risk text in the bundle is the cautionary statement opening the 2024 UPS GRI Report, which classifies sustainability targets as forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties under SEC safe-harbor practice, listing trigger terms that include "will," "project," "expect," "estimate," "target," and "plan" [source: https://about.ups.com/content/dam/upsstories/images/our-impact/reporting/2024-UPS-GRI-Report.pdf]. Two material forward-looking obligations are visible in the bundle: continued implementation requirements under the October 2022 nationwide RCRA consent agreement [source: https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/commercial/articles/1541549/ups-to-pay-5-3m-nationwide-hazardous-waste-epa-penalty] and Region 6 corrective-action obligations from the June 2021 settlement [source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/united-parcel-service-inc-ups-settlement].