Sept. 19, 2007 — In a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a St. Thomas laundry has agreed to spend at least $40,000 on revamping operations to eliminate the use of a hazardous chemical.
L'Henri, the corporation that owns One Hour Martinizing at Barbel Plaza, will also pay a $5,000 fine for past violations of federal rules requiring workers to identify and properly handle and dispose of hazardous waste. The company agreed to phase in, over a two-year period, a new, hybrid class of dry-cleaning machinery that uses less toxic solvents for dry cleaning and is significantly more energy efficient.
"We are changing the way dry cleaners operate on the islands," said EPA
Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg, according to a news release issued Tuesday. "Using these new, environmentally friendly systems benefits the delicate ecology of the Virgin Islands and will be good for the bottom line, as well."
It's better for companies not in compliance, such as One Hour Martinizing, to put the money into major improvements rather than have that money go to fines, said Keshema Webbe, life scientist at the St. Thomas EPA office.
A message left for owner Henri Magras at One Hour Martinizing was not returned.
In April 2005, EPA inspected the One Hour Martinizing facility for
compliance with Resource Conservation and Recovery Act regulations, which govern how business must handle hazardous waste. The agency determined that the facility failed to properly designate wastes as hazardous, stored and treated or disposed of its hazardous wastes without a permit and failed to minimize the possibility of hazardous-waste releases into the environment by mishandling the wastes.
"We did a sweep of all dry cleaners," Webbe said. "We didn't focus on anybody in particular."
EPA inspected about eight facilities on St. Thomas and St. John and four on St. Croix, she said. Some were worse than others, she said, and some of the cases have been resolved.
Release of these materials can cause respiratory problems for workers,
contaminate groundwater and seriously damage marine environments. The dry-cleaning fluid perclorethylene is a major concern for the EPA because it is so hazardous, Webbe said.
One Hour Martinizing also improperly handled fluorescent light bulbs, which contain mercury, according to the release. Mercury can be released into the environment when fluorescent bulbs are crushed during disposal. Fluorescent light bulbs can and should be recycled. As part of the agreement, the owner will no longer discard fluorescent light bulbs in the municipal trash.
For more information about hazardous waste, visit www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/hazwaste.htm. For more information about the proper disposal of bulbs containing mercury, contact Lynda Garvin, special waste coordinator for the V.I. Waste Management Authority, at 778-7657, or visit www.epa.gov/mercury/consumer.htm#flu and www.epa.gov/region02/waste/spent-lamp.pdf
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