Greenbytes: March 16, 2004 Edition

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Feature: $1.4 Million Environmental Settlement With MBTA Brings Clean Air and Water Benefits to Boston: Settlement Stems from Bus Idling and Water Pollution Violations

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office this month reached a $1.4 million enforcement settlement with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) that will bring significant clean air benefits to the Boston area. Specifically, the settlement will reduce idling of MBTA buses, reduce pollution from South Shore commuter rail trains, and provide land for a bike path along the Mystic River.

The settlement stems from a federal enforcement action against the MBTA for numerous air and water violations, including excessive idling of dozens of diesel buses in 2002, discharging without a permit for many years into the Mystic River and other Boston-area rivers, and failing to develop oil spill control plans at multiple Boston-area facilities.

According to this month’s settlement with MBTA, the transportation authority will pay $328,274 in penalties and fund two environmental projects: a $1 million project to reduce pollution from commuter trains at South Station and donation of a one-acre parcel on the Somerville/Charlestown line so a commuter bike path can be extended to Sullivan Square. The settlement also requires the MBTA to prevent future environmental violations by putting in place a formal Environmental Management System for all of its operations.

The MBTA also agreed to meet a five-minute idling limit for all of its 995 buses, except on very cold days. This limit will go into effect now, and by December 2006, MBTA will meet the limit on very cold days as well. Excessive bus idling is a major health concern because diesel exhaust is a probable carcinogen that can trigger asthma and respiratory illness.

Earlier this winter, EPA and the US Department of Justice announced a $6 million enforcement case settlement with a local power plant that will also result in significant air quality improvements in the region, as well as a restored salt marsh in Chelsea and construction of a new commuter bike path across the Mystic River that will link Everett and Somerville. In a settlement stemming from air quality violations at the Mystic Station power plant in Everett, plant owner Exelon Mystic LLC agreed to pay a $1 million penalty and fund more than $5 million of environmental projects in the Boston area.

Among the projects was $3.25 million to retrofit 500 Boston school buses with pollution control equipment and supply them with ultra low-polluting diesel fuel. The project will reduce tailpipe emissions from the buses by more than 90 percent. By 2005, Boston will be the first major city in the country to have retrofitted its entire school bus fleet. The settlement also included $1.25 million for pollution control improvements to commuter rail trains operating out of Boston's North Station and $250,000 to build a commuter bike path along the Amelia Earhart Dam on the Mystic River.

The combined effect of the North and South Station projects will be to remove about 687 tons of sulfur dioxide and 76 tons of particulate matter from the air around Boston over the next three years.

"These two settlements, one with the MBTA and the other with the power plant, will improve air quality for all Boston-area residents, especially for children, who are particularly vulnerable to asthma and the effects of diesel exhaust,," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "By reducing bus idling, running cleaner trains and enhancing bicycling travel along the Mystic River, these settlements are a success story for public health efforts in the Boston area."

Details of the three projects included in today's settlement are:

• A project valued at $1 million to operate 33 commuter trains at Boston's South Station on lower-polluting low sulfur diesel fuel for at least three years. The cleaner fuel will eliminate about 32 tons of particulate pollution and 429 tons of sulfur dioxide over three years.

• Donating an easement on a one-acre strip of land so a Mystic River bike path can be extended to reach the Sullivan Square subway station from a park in Somerville. The easement will provide a critical link in the Boston Bike path network. The facility-wide Environmental Management System being put in place by the MBTA will clarify formal procedures and responsibilities for all MBTA staff to ensure the agency complies with environmental regulations and monitors and improves its own environmental performance. All of the Clean Water Act violations have been corrected by the MBTA.

• Additionally, MBTA will immediately limit idling to five minutes on all but the coldest days (although MBTA may legally idle for more than five minutes while conducting safety circle checks and repairing buses). State regulations prohibit idling for more than five minutes, with some exceptions. During inspections of four MBTA yards in 2002, EPA found at least 55 buses idling for more than five minutes. Many of the buses were found to be idling for more than an hour and, in one instance, at the Roxbury yard on Bartlett Street, a bus was seen idling for 2½ hours. The inspections are part of a campaign by EPA, MA DEP and the City of Boston to enforce the anti-idling regulations.

Diesel exhaust contains fine particles that can cause lung damage and aggravate respiratory conditions. Children are more sensitive to air pollution because they have a faster breathing rate.

The complaint also alleges six years of discharging into the Mystic River from the MBTA's Charlestown Yard and Everett Shops without a permit. Also, for seven years, the MBTA discharged storm water without required permits or storm water pollution prevention plans. The plans would have helped prevent rain water from carrying pollution to adjacent rivers.

Finally, the MBTA failed to develop and implement oil spill prevention and control plans for at least 10 MBTA facilities, in some cases 20 years after they were required by law.

Web Resources:

• Car-Free Transportation Alternatives

• Diesel Exhaust

• Enforcement in New England

• NPDES Permits

Press Releases

$1.4M Environmental Settlement With MBTA Brings Clean Air and Water Benefits to Boston: Settlement Stems from Bus Idling and Water Pollution Violations

EPA Proposes Vermont Mine Site to Superfund

RI Company Settles Major EPA Pesticide Case

Central Conn. State to Pay $31,250 and Do Environmental Project for Water and Waste Violations

Events and conferences are not archived. Please refer to the Regional Calendar for upcoming events and conferences.

Brayton Point NPDES - environmental appeals board and public notice documents added

Drinking Water SRF - most recent biannual 01 & 02 report posted

GE Pittsfield Superfund Site

• jan 2004 1.5 mile monthly report posted
• ecological risk assessment peer review final comments

Hatheway and Patterson Superfund Site - sep 2003 preliminary reuse assessment posted

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