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Massachusetts Company Agrees to Pay $28,110 for PCB Violations

Release Date: 07/23/2008
Contact Information: Paula Ballentine (617) 918-1027

(Boston—July 23, 2008) Ludlow Industrial Realties, Inc. (LIR) of Ludlow, Massachusetts will pay a penalty of $28,110 and will spend at least $45,536 to perform a supplemental environmental project (SEP) to settle EPA claims that it violated federal polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) regulations.

    In August of last year, EPA conducted an inspection of LIR’s facility to determine its compliance with the PCB Regulations. EPA concluded that LIR violated the PCB Regulations through the improper disposal of PCBs by leaking and/or spilling PCB oil from storage drums and transformers; by failing to comply with PCB marking requirements; by failing to comply with PCB storage requirements; and by failing to comply with PCB registration and notification requirements.

    The LIR facility was built in the early 1900s and is the former site of a twine and webbing mill that closed operations in the mid-1960s. The facility is made up of approximately 125 buildings located on roughly 79 acres of land. Since the closing of the mill, the facility has been operated as commercial rental property by several different corporations. LIR has owned the facility since 1992. Approximately 50% of the buildings at the facility are now occupied by tenant companies. Most of the facility’s current tenants are storage and distribution companies, although other tenants include cabinet makers, book binders, and aluminum-forming companies.

    For the SEP, LIR will retrofill four PCB-containing electrical units at its site with non-PCB oil so that the transformers can be reclassified as non-PCB Transformers. A total of approximately 2,342 gallons of PCB transformer oil would be replaced by non-PCB oil in this project.

    For more information, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/region1/enforcement/tsca/index.html