Campus, EPA reach accord on penalty for
Clean Air violations

Projects to improve environment planned

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

ore than two years after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found Clean Air Act violations on campus, the federal agency and the University last month reached an agreement on a penalty. The EPA announced the campus would pay a $40,000 fine and spend an additional $128,000 in projects designed to improve the campus's impact on the environment.

     The penalty is for violations found during a surprise inspection of the campus in May 2000. Violations cited included failing to keep records of degreasing operations, use of coatings during vehicle repair that exceeded limits for volatility and fueling vehicles without a proper vapor recovery and control system. The campus also was cited for submitting inaccurate emissions figures and making "late and inadequate" responses to information requests.

     The original fine proposed by the EPA was $262,700, according to Don Robinson, director of Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S). Robinson said the penalties were much less than they could have been because the campus has extensive environmental management systems in place and that in one of the EPA's primary areas of concern, hazardous waste, the campus has made first-rate efforts.

     "The good news is that we did not receive any monetary penalties for any of the findings under the hazardous waste regulations," he said. "The most extensive regulations are in hazardous waste. There were areas of noncompliance but nothing that justified levying a monetary penalty. At most other schools, hazardous waste regulation is the area in which they have received the most fines from the EPA. We have good company: Yale, MIT, Boston University, URI, the University of New Hampshire."

     Robinson pointed to a $250,000 fine and $550,000 project-requirement levied on the University of Rhode Island last year.

     "[The EPA] did seem that they were more interested in seeing if we had a program in place to manage hazardous waste at the University [than in individual violations]," he said. "And we had that. They were extremely impressed with some of the labs they saw on campus, particularly the Chemistry Department's.

     "You can have day-to-day vigilance issues, but more important to them was do you have a program in place. That helped us immensely.

     "We really depend on the vigilance of the community in maintaining the compliance with environmental regulations. It's really the folks involved in the operations who make it happen. We'll continue to be subject to surprise inspections in the future."

     The University agreed to install 23 solar-powered lamps in Lot 25 and replace three petroleum-powered vehicles with electric ones as part of the penalty.

     "We estimated this will cost $128,000, and we have agreed to spend at least $115,000," Robinson said. "And they have to be done within certain time frames; for example, we have 270 days to get the lighting in place."

     The value of required projects over simple fines is that the campus can benefit from the money spent, he said.

     The EPA estimates the projects will result in an annual reduction of 1,170 pounds of carbon monoxide emissions, 46,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, and 150 pounds of volatile organic compound emissions.

     "We also agreed to implement an environmental management system in Fleet Services, which we certainly support doing because we're already doing an EPA-sponsored environmental management system in Lederle Tower A in Chemistry and Biochemistry."

     Robinson said campus progress toward environmental friendliness has been impressive.

     "I've been here 27 years, now, and I've seen a major shift in concern, folks being more knowledgeable about the safety aspects of what they do, and it's needed."