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EPA NEW ENGLAND PRESENTS 2000 ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR AWARDS

Release Date: 05/09/2000
Contact Information: Amy Miller, EPA Press Office (617-918-1042)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented awards today to seven New England companies, including two in Maine, that have been particularly innovative in addressing environmental problems. The companies were recognized by EPA's New England Office at the Environmental Expo trade show at the World Trade Center.

The winning companies were selected for finding solutions to important environmental challenges, such as chemical discharges from dentists' offices and remnant scraps left over from furniture and clothing manufacturing.

"Through their innovations, these award-winning companies are making New England cleaner and safer for all of us," said Mindy S. Lubber, Regional Administrator for EPA New England. "The companies recognized today are in the forefront of environmental innovation, taking chances and breaking boundaries with bold new ideas."

The awards, which are being given out for the third year by EPA, recognize technologies with a history of success, as well as new and emerging technologies that are breaking new ground in environmental protection, clean-up or sampling. The awards program was created by EPA New England's Center for Environmental Industry and Technology, which provides business and technical help to New England's environmental industry.

Applications were evaluated by the regional Science Council, a panel of top EPA scientists.

The 2000 Environmental Technology Innovator Award winners are as followers:

• Solmetex, Inc. Billerica, Mass. This company created a treatment system to remove mercury and silver from wastewater generated from dental procedures. The system used a technology (with its patent pending) that allows the company to design and package small systems that can be used by dentists.
• Anderson Technology Corp., Cotuit, Mass.: This company's Lime Slurry Treatment Process controls pH in public water supplies. This process was designed to ease the difficulty of using lime for controlling pH.
• CF Technologies, Inc., Hyde Park, Mass.: CF Technologies developed a technology that uses liquified gases as solvents to extract the oil from absorbent materials used to clean spills. This technology allows both the oil and absorbent to be reused. The recovered oil is then recycled in the client's boilers and sold.
• CASTion Corp., Ludlow, Mass.: The Controlled Atmosphere Separation Technology (CAST) wastewater and chemical recovery systems are designed to recover clean reusable water and valuable reusable chemicals from some metal-finishing process. The process involves dividing the wastewater into two streams -- clean water and concentrated chemicals that can be reused.
• Cape Technologies, LLC, South Portland, Maine.: Cape Technologies has developed a low cost way to detect and quantify the presence of dioxins and furans.
• Counterpane, Inc., Stowe, Vermont, : Counterpane has developed a low-energy procedure to make fiber out of polyester textile remnants discarded from the process of making textile, clothes and home furnishings.
• SeptiTech, Inc., Gray, Maine.: SeptiTech's technology combines the company's wastewater treatment system with a disinfection system and a low-impact technology for irrigating plants. The SeptiTech processor, with a patent pending, treats household wastewater from a standard septic tank and then disinfects it using ultraviolet light. The water is then discharged in small, uniform doses from a hose that leaks along its entire length, dispersing treated water.