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EPA settles with Gateway Regional Medical Center on chemical inventory reporting violations

Release Date: 01/20/2009
Contact Information: Karen Thompson, 312-353-8547, [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09-OPA07

(Chicago, Ill. - Jan. 15, 2009) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 recently settled with Gateway Regional Medical Center on hazardous chemical reporting violations at its Granite City, Ill., facility.

Federal law requires that local authorities be notified of hazardous chemical storage. In the event of a fire or emergency, responders need to know what they are dealing with so they can take steps to protect people living or working in the area.

Gateway Regional Medical Center, 2100 Madison Ave., paid $12,900 and agreed to perform a supplemental environmental project costing $38,899 to resolve an EPA complaint for failure to submit to state and local authorities the required chemical inventory forms. The facility exceeded the reporting threshold for fuel oil by 21 times. The fuel oil is used in backup power generation equipment.

The environmental project will include purchasing and donating response equipment to the Madison County HAZMAT Team and the Granite City Fire Department.