Mass. environmental labs to pay fines

BOSTON – Four Massachusetts laboratory companies that perform commercial-scale environmental testing, including one in Mansfield, have agreed to pay a total of $1.75 million for allegedly failing to obtain required state permits and not controlling their hazardous air-pollutant emissions, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced last week.
Under the four consent judgments, the laboratories Alpha Analytical Inc. – which has a Bristol County location in Mansfield – Accutest Laboratories of New England Inc., Spectrum Analytical Inc. and Con-Test Analytical Laboratory must also comply with state air-permitting requirements and install emission-control equipment for sample analyses that will reduce hazardous air-pollutant emissions by 95 percent.
According to a news release, the complaints allege that the companies violated the state’s Public Health Law that protects people and the environment from hazardous air pollution by operating as “major sources” of HAP emissions, and as sources of volatile organic compounds, without required Mass. Department of Environmental Protection permits and approvals. •

No posts to display