WASHINGTON—A federal grand jury in Providence has charged the Southern Union Company, the Texas-based former owner of the New England Gas Company, with illegally storing mercury at a Pawtucket, R.I., site and with failing to report mercury spillage.
The three-count indictment returned today in U.S. District Court in Providence, R.I., was jointly announced by Ronald J. Tenpas, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Robert Clark Corrente, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, and Michael E. Hubbard, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Area Office of the Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division (EPA-CID).
According to the indictment, Southern Union began a program in 2001 to remove from customers’ homes gas regulators that contained mercury. Southern Union initially contracted with an environmental services company to safely remove the mercury from the regulators, which had been used in homes built prior to the 1960’s to control the flow of gas. Southern Union employees brought the regulators to a facility at the end of Tidewater Street in Pawtucket on the edge of the Seekonk River. There the contractor removed the mercury from the regulators and shipped it to a facility for distillation.
The indictment alleges that the removal contract expired at the end of 2001 but that New England gas technicians continued to remove the mercury-containing regulators. The company allegedly stored the regulators in a vacant building at the Tidewater facility, some of them in plastic kiddie pools.
The indictment alleges that the company also stored liquid mercury in various containers in the building. That mercury, the indictment alleges, came from a variety of sources, including from the locker of a deceased company employee.
In 2002, 2003, and again in 2004, the indictment alleges, a local company official drafted requests for proposals (RFPs) for removal of the mercury that was collecting at the Tidewater facility. However the company allegedly never finalized the RFPs or put them out to bid.
By July 2004, according to the indictment, approximately 165 mercury-containing regulators were stored at the Tidewater facility, as were various other containers, such as glass jars and a plastic jug, containing a total of more than a gallon of mercury.
The indictment alleges that the Tidewater facility was in various states of disrepair and, over the years, showed evidence of break-ins by vandals and homeless people. At three company safety committee meetings in 2004, maintenance employees raised concerns about the facility’s safety, but Southern Union took no action, according to the indictment.
In September 2004, according to the indictment, three youths broke into the mercury storage building and took several containers of liquid mercury. They broke some of the containers, spilling mercury around the facility’s grounds. They took some of the mercury to a nearby apartment complex, where they spread it around the grounds. For about three weeks, according to the indictment, puddles of mercury remained on the ground at the Tidewater facility.
The indictment further alleges that in October 2004, shortly after a company employee discovered the mercury spill, Southern Union arranged for an environmental services company to remove the mercury from Tidewater. However, the company allegedly failed to notify the Pawtucket Fire Department and the state fire marshal about the spill, as required by federal law.
The indictment also charges Southern Union with two counts of storing hazardous waste without a permit and one count of failing to notify the appropriate local emergency officials of a hazardous waste spill. An indictment is merely an allegation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Upon conviction, knowingly storing hazardous waste without a permit carries a maximum fine of $50,000 for each day of violation. Count one of the indictment alleges that the span of the illegal storage of liquid mercury in containers took place from Sept. 19, 2002 to Oct. 19, 2004, or 762 days. Count three alleges the span of illegal storage of regulators containing mercury took place from March 25, 2003 to Oct. 19, 2004, or 575 days. The maximum fine for counts one and three, if calculated at $50,000 per day, would be $66,850,000. The maximum fine for failing to report a hazardous waste spill is $500,000.
The investigation resulting in this indictment was a joint effort of the Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division (EPA-CID) and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Office of Criminal Investigation.
Kevin Cassidy, a trial attorney with the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Assistant U.S. Attorney Terrence P. Donnelly, and Diane Chabot, an attorney with EPA-CID, are prosecuting the case.
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