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RI MANUFACTURER AGREES TO PAY TO SETTLE EPA CLAIM OF FAILURE TO REPORT TOXIC CHEMICAL USE

Release Date: 11/18/1999
Contact Information: Amy Miller, EPA Press Office (617-918-1042)

BOSTON - A Woonsocket, RI manufacturer of container caps agreed to pay $24,990 to settle a claim by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the company failed to submit certain toxic chemical reporting forms in 1995 and 1996, as required by federal environmental law.

The settlement stems from a complaint filed in September by EPA-New England. The complaint said Tech Industries Inc. did not file forms regarding its use of certain glycol ethers, as required by the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. Glycol ethers are used in the coatings for the container caps manufactured by Tech Industries. The complaint was issued after an EPA inspection of the plant in May 1998.

The federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) requires facilities that manufacture, process or otherwise use any of more than 600 specific chemicals over specific threshold amounts to submit reports annually to EPA and the state. This information is entered into the Toxic Release Inventory, or TRI, a large database available to the public, industry and state and local governments.

"Federal law requires that the public have access to information about releases of toxic chemicals into the environment," said John P. DeVillars, EPA's New England Administrator. "Tech Industries has submitted the missing reports and we feel confident the company will be more vigilant about reporting its releases of glycol ethers in the future."