By Jim Therrien, Bennington Banner
BENNINGTON — Bennington College has agreed to pay a penalty to the state Agency of Natural Resources after violations of hazardous materials management regulations were cited during an inspection of campus facilities in May.
The college has signed an assurance of discontinuance agreement with the state refers to a series of violations cited by the inspectors and calls for a $3,938 payment.
In addition, the college is agreeing to contribute $11,813 to one or more related Supplemental Environmental Projects that must receive state approval and be funded within 180 days of the effective date of the agreement. The posted agreement will be subject to a 30-day public comment period that is scheduled to end on Jan. 17.
According to the assurance of discontinuance, the college is considered a small quantity generator of hazardous waste, producing between 220 and 2,200 pounds of waste per month. The wastes include glazing material from a ceramics studio, waste from painting studios, chemical wastes from a laboratory, and solvent wastes.
During a May 15 inspection of the campus, ANR personnel said they noted multiple containers of discarded products in the Buildings and Grounds short-term storage area; no information posted on how to reach an emergency coordinator; indication from a manager on site of insufficient hazardous waste training; a drum of glaze waste improperly stored; that arrangements with local fire department, police, hospital and emergency response teams had not been established; an unlabeled and unsecured 55-gallon drum for paint waste, with no information about the point of origin; nine unlabeled accumulation containers for various chemical wastes in the chemistry lab, and several unmarked containers for solvent wipes in painting studios.
Also cited by the inspectors were two and sometimes three containers holding the same type of waste throughout the painting studios; that the college was not conducting daily inspections of either short-term storage and was not maintaining an inventory for the Buildings and Grounds short-term storage site; that the B&G area failed to display a “No smoking” sign near ignitable wastes; that multiple containers of hazardous waste in each of the storage areas lacked required labeling, and that no hazardous waste manifests were available for review as required.
The college later provided the ANR with documentation demonstrating a return to compliance concerning the violations, the agreement states.
The college also “admits the factual findings described above, solely for purposes of resolving this case,” according to the signed agreement, which does not require the college to formally admit or deny wrongdoing or liability.
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But in the statement the college agreed that the violations alleged “are deemed proved and established as a ‘prior violation,’ in any future state proceeding that requires consideration of the [college’s] past record of compliance … .”
College responds
“In May of this year, Bennington College had a site inspection from the Vermont DEC, Hazardous Waste Division,” said college Director of Communications Alex Dery Snider. “Nearly all violations noted were minor procedural or labeling oversights; the violations were not related to disposing of any hazardous waste in improper ways.”
As an example, she said, “We got a violation for having two waste bins in the VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts Center) paint studios for solvent rags, instead of one. In aggregate, these presented minimal risk to either the environment or the campus population and, when discovered, were immediately rectified. Relevant staff have received additional training since then, and [Department of Environmental Conservation] confirmed in July that the college is fully in compliance with Vermont Hazardous Waste regulations.”
Dery Snider added that all hazardous waste generated “is a direct result of one of two activities: educational activities, primarily in the discipline areas of the sciences and visual arts; or maintenance and operation of the campus physical plant.”
Two of the violations, she said, were related to emergency preparedness, but the Vermont regulations “do not take into account that other emergency procedures may be in place. For instance, the college as a whole has campus-wide emergency procedures coordinated through our Campus Safety department and local fire and rescue departments, which mitigates the risk associated with any emergency incident on campus; and, while the penalty calculation narrative notes a ‘large student population in close proximity,’ the hazardous waste storage shed is in an isolated location, over 0.25 miles from the main residential and academic buildings of the campus.”
She added, “It’s important to note that we were not disposing of any hazardous waste in improper ways. The violations have to do only with labeling and procedures for managing waste materials on site. The college was immediately responsive to addressing the violations through appropriate corrective actions.”
Jim Therrien writes for New England Newspapers in Southern Vermont, including the Bennington Banner, Brattleboro Reformer and Manchester Journal. Twitter: @BB_therrien
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