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EPA Settles Environmental Violations with Delaware State University - Action Resulted from EPA’s Compliance Assistance Initiative with Colleges and Universities

Release Date: 5/1/2003
Contact Information: Donna Heron, 215-814-5113

Donna Heron, 215-814-5113

PHILADELPHIA – The mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has reached a settlement with Delaware State University in Dover for environmental violations found during a multi-media inspection in August, 2001.

Delaware State University has agreed to pay a cash penalty of $6,906 and complete a supplemental environmental project valued at $53,780. The project will involve the school developing an environmental management system to help it comply with and understand the applicable environmental regulations.

EPA established its college and university initiative in 1999 because many institutions of higher learning were not aware of their responsibilities under various environmental laws, or had failed to implement strategies to comply with these laws. In addition to inspections and appropriate enforcement actions, this initiative included free workshops to help colleges and universities comply, and established a web site that provides information about their duties under the law.

During the 2001 inspection, conducted jointly by EPA and Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, hazardous waste from the chemical and biology laboratories was found to be improperly labeled and stored, which is a violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. In addition, the university also failed to prepare a spill prevention control and countermeasure plan to prevent and minimize oil spills, as required by the Clean Water Act.

Delaware State University is among12 schools inspected to date under the initiative. Four of the schools were found to have good overall compliance – Howard University; Washington, D.C.; The U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.; and the University of Delaware, Newark, Del.

Eight inspections resulted in enforcement actions at the University of DC, Washington, D.C.; Marshall University, Huntingdon, W. Va.; Lincoln University, Oxford, Pa.; Villanova University, Villanova, Pa.; George Washington University, Washington, D.C.; University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.; the University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Md.; as well as Delaware State University, Dover, Del.

EPA will continue to monitor environmental compliance at other colleges and universities.

EPA’s audit policy is posted at: https://www.epa.gov/compliance/incentives/auditing/auditpolicy.html.

For more information on environmental audits and compliance assistance, visit www.epa.gov/reg3ecej.