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Real Estate Developer Ordered to Pay $227K Penalty for Hazardous Waste Violations in North Attleboro, Mass.

Release Date: 07/09/2009
Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017

(Boston, Mass. – July 9, 2009) - A Brookline-based real estate developer and its management company were ordered to pay a $227,500 fine for violating federal and state hazardous waste management requirements during a redevelopment project in North Attleboro, Mass.

Blackinton Commons L.L.C. and CG2, Inc. were found by a federal administrative law judge to have violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) by failing to properly identify and dispose of hazardous waste during their work to redevelop the former V.H. Blackinton & Co., Inc. jewellery manufacturing facility at 140 and 148 Commonwealth Avenue in North Attleboro, Mass. The property was developed into a 38 unit residential condominium complex named Blackinton Commons.

The work to remediate and redevelop the N. Attleboro site included excavating and disposing of electroplating waste from V.H. Blackinton’s former wastewater sludge lagoons. The sludge, which is listed as hazardous waste under RCRA, contained contaminants including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and silver. In the course of redeveloping the property for residential reuse, the lagoon area was excavated and the contaminated material improperly sent to a landfill in Rochester, N.H. that was not licensed or designed to accept hazardous waste.

The ruling found that Blackinton and CG2 failed to properly identify the 212 tons of waste excavated from the lagoons as hazardous waste and improperly sent 212 tons of hazardous waste to a landfill that was not authorized to received such waste

It is important that developers and their consultants thoroughly and carefully characterize waste generated from a development site prior to disposal so that the waste will be properly managed and disposed of without becoming a risk to human health and the environment.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) is currently performing publicly funded response actions to evaluate contamination remaining at the site, and to ensure the protection of public health, safety, public welfare and the environment. MassDEP is also pursuing enforcement against Blackinton Commons L.L.C. for violations of the Massachusetts Contingency Plan.

More information:

- The decision is available for review (www.epa.gov/oalj/orders/blackinton-commons-id-042309.pdf)

- Enforcing hazardous waste requirements in New England (www.epa.gov/region1/enforcement/waste)

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Contacts: U.S. EPA, David Deegan, (617) 918-1017
Mass DEP, Joe Ferson, (617) 654-6523