News Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Rhode Island
October 16, 2007
Indictment charges the former owner of New England Gas with illegally storing mercury at a Pawtucket site
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 site and with failing to report mercury spillage.
United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, Ronald J. Tenpas, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Michael E. Hubbard, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Area Office of the Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division, jointly announced a three-count indictment, which the grand jury returned today in U.S. District Court, Providence.
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 1960s 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. The contractor removed the mercury from the regulators, and Southern Union’s environmental coordinator 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 regulators from customers’ homes. The company allegedly stored the mercury-containing 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 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; there were gaps in the perimeter fencing, extensive graffiti on vacant buildings, broken windows, and broken doors. In May 2004, the company’s environmental coordinator documented evidence of attempted break-ins at the facility. 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 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 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. The indictment alleges that the span of the illegal storage in count one, which alleges the storage of liquid mercury, was from September 19, 2002 to October 19, 2004, or 762 days. The alleged duration of count three, which alleges illegal storage of regulators that contained mercury, was from March 25, 2003 to October 19, 2004, or 575 days. At $50,000 per day, the maximum fine for those counts 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.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Terrence P. Donnelly, Diane Chabot, an attorney with EPA-CID, and Kevin Cassidy, a trial attorney with the Environment and Natural Resource Division, are prosecuting the case.
Contact: 401-709-5032 Thomas.connell@usdoj.gov