Danger on Dexter Street: Prov Business on EPA Watch List

Danger on Dexter Street: Prov Business on EPA Watch List

A business located near several schools in a residential West End neighborhood in Providence is on a high priority Hazardous Waste Watch List created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), GoLocalProv has learned.

D & D Chrome Plating, located at 355 Dexter Street across from the MET high school, has been on the Watch List since at least September, when the EPA first released it to the public. The list was created in 2004, but was kept secret until a Freedom of Information Act request led the agency to begin posting it to its website.

More than a dozen calls to the company between last Friday and Monday were not answered.

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DEM Found 8 Major Violations

There is little information available about what the company does specifically or how many employees it currently has. According to Secretary of State filings, the business was incorporated in March 2002. About five years later, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) issued a Notice of Violation to the company for committing hazardous waste and air violations.

Records show the DEM inspected the site during the winter of 2007 and found more than a half dozen violations committed by the company.

The violations include:

• Failure to properly label tanks holding hazardous waste
• Failure to indicate the accumulation start date for the waste held in the tanks
• Failure to conduct weekly inspections of the tanks
• Failure to maintain a minimum of two feet of freeboard within the tanks to prevent spillage of hazardous waste
• Failure to have a written contingency plan to respond to emergencies
• Failure to provide hazardous waste training to employees
• Failure to complete a small quantity generator report
• Failure to properly label all containers holding hazardous wast
  
  The DEM also that found that D & D Chrome Playing committed an air violation pertaining to the unauthorized installation and operation of equipment (chrome electroplating).

By the end of 2008, the DEM ordered the company to comply with hazardous waste regulations and to immediately cease use of the chrome electroplating process until a permit was obtained.

DEM Levied $50,000 Fine

As a result of all of the company’s violations, the DEM levied a fine 51,906.00 in January 2009. According to DEM spokesperson Gail Mastrati, a consent agreement was reached in March 2010 and the company complied with all the ordered actions with the exception of providing hazardous waste training to its employees.

However, the consent agreement also required payment of an $8,500 penalty and submission of the training program and attendance records. Mastrati said the company quickly dropped the ball when it came to making payments.

“$2,500 was paid upon signing the agreement, with the rest due in monthly payments,” Mastrati told GoLocalProv. “The company never made any further payments. The unpaid penalty was sent to a collection agency due to lack of payment.”

Watch List: EPA Expects Response

Now the company finds itself as one of only two Rhode Island businesses making the EPA’s Watch List. The other, Block Island Power, has been cited for possible violations of the Clean Air Act.

According to the EPA, “the Watch List facilitates dialogue between EPA and state and local agencies on enforcement matters relating to significant noncompliance or high priority violations.”

But the EPA also expects local agencies to hold businesses accountable.

“EPA then expects the government agency with jurisdiction over a facility with significant noncompliance or a high priority violation to initiate an appropriate enforcement response, in a timely manner,” an agency spokesperson told GoLocalProv.

EPA spokesman David Deegan said the violations noted by the DEM are the reason D & D Chrome is on the list and no other action is currently being taken.

“The bottom line is it is actually the Rhode Island concerns with the company,” Deegan said. “I guess there was past enforcement action and some resolution to that and that's the reason this company is on the EPA Watch List.”

Local Concern

But local officials say they plan to take a closer look into the situation. In a neighborhood that has schools and families living in close proximity to the business, local politicians say it is better to be safe than sorry.

Councilman Wilbur Jennings, who represents the neighborhood, said he plans to take immediate action.

“I’m very concerned. I had no knowledge of any of this,” Jennings said. “I’m going to make a visit to this business immediately and find out what’s happening.”

The city of Providence was also unaware any noncompliance with the organization, but city spokesman David Ortiz said the city will now look into the situation.

“The city is always concerned whenever there is noncompliance and violations of environmental policy. We will monitor the situation,” Ortiz said.

For more on this story, check out GoLocalTV today at 4:00pm where Greg Berman and Lauren Marchetti will take you to the business to learn even more about what's happening.

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