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EPA Cites Central Connecticut State University for Water and Waste Violations

Release Date: 10/08/2002
Contact Information: Amy Miller, Press Office, (617) 918-1042

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has proposed a $391,830 penalty against Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn., for violations of hazardous waste and clean water laws.

The proposed penalties – $345,022 for numerous violations of state and federal hazardous waste laws and $46,808 for one violation of the federal Clean Water Act – stem from violations found during EPA inspections at the university's 143-acre campus in June 2001.

Hazardous waste is generated at the university primarily in its chemistry and biology building, the fine arts center and through activities overseen by the university's Facilities and Construction Management Department. Among the hazardous waste violations, EPA charged the university with failure to:

• obtain a state permit to operate as a hazardous waste storage facility;
• conduct and document hazardous waste training, emergency planning and regular inspections of hazardous waste areas on campus;
• perform proper waste determinations on hazardous waste and solid waste generated on campus
• properly label, date and manage containers of hazardous waste in accordance with federal and state hazardous waste regulations.

In filing its complaint, EPA ordered CCSU, which serves 14,000 students, to ensure that all employees with the responsibility of handling or working with hazardous waste are thoroughly familiar with proper waste handling and emergency procedures; that emergency information is posted next to telephones and that all other hazardous waste laws are followed. In addition, the university must submit to EPA by August 2003 a revision of its oil spill plan, known as a "Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures Plan" that includes August 2002 changes in the law.

"The university's failure to follow basic rules of handling and storing hazardous waste put both the environment and the public at an increased risk of harm," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "The university's failure to prepare a proper oil spill plan also increased the threat of a spill to a tributary of Piper Brook that runs directly across the campus. These fines should ensure that Central Connecticut State University complies with environmental laws in the future."

The settlement is among numerous enforcement actions EPA's New England Office has taken against universities and colleges across the region as part of its College and University Initiative. Launched in 1999, the initiative includes inspections, extensive compliance assistance, including workshops geared for university environmental compliance personnel, and a university compliance web page, which can be visited at https://www.epa.gov/region01/assistance/univ/.

More recently, at a roundtable this summer at Yale University, EPA provided universities with information on an Audit Initiative, which allows universities to self-disclose any violations and therefore get penalty reductions or low inspection priority. So far, 170 university facilities in New England are involved and 127 self-disclosures have been received and reviewed.

The agency also used the meeting to recruit new university participants for the six to eight slots available in its Environmental Management System Initiative pilot program. This program, run through UMass Lowell's EMS Service Program, works with EPA to help institutions put in place environmental management systems. Three schools - UMass/Amherst, Wentworth Institute of Technology and the University of New England - became the first participants in December 2001.

EPA, in conjunction with Yale University, also will hold an all-day workshop on new spill prevention laws Nov. 6 at the New Haven Hotel. For more information on this workshop and other compliance assistance efforts, call the EPA's Peggy Bagnoli at 617-918-1828.

The College and University Initiative was launched after EPA inspectors noticed generally poor compliance during their visits to universities, which typically have large numbers of laboratories and other operations handling a large array of toxic chemicals.

After a 1994 inspection at Yale, the university was cited for mishandling and mislabeling hazardous chemicals. As a result of the enforcement action, Yale paid a $69,570 fine and agreed to invest $279,000 in environmental programs on campus and in New Haven.