SEATTLE -- The company that operates the Idaho National Laboratory has agreed to pay $61,000 in fines for mishandling chemical waste at the eastern Idaho facility.

The agreement to pay the fine was announced Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA officials say Battelle Energy Alliance and its project contractor, Wheeler Electric, mishandled waste containing Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

The problems stem from a July, 2006 spill of PCBs when a Wheeler employee removed oily cable from a conduit near a power plant on the INL facility.

EPA officials say the cable oil had levels of PCBs well above allowable levels.

Contamination occurred when workers later dragged the oily cable through the building, then left the job site with contaminated boots and clothing.