Cascades Boxboard to pay $78,000 for reporting violations

Cascades Boxboard Group, located in Sprague, Connecticut, has agreed to pay a penalty of $78,000 and to spend $40,000 to improve local emergency capabilities in order to resolve EPA claims that it violated federal community right-to-know laws.

EPA’s New England office alleged that Cascades Boxboard Group failed to file a chemical inventory form, known as a Tier II form, for the year 2006 for sulfuric acid stored at the facility. Sulfuric acid is considered to be an extremely hazardous substance under federal regulations and Cascades stored 57 times the minimum threshold level.

This violation of the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act was discovered during an EPA inspection in September 2008. EPA also alleged that Cascades Boxboard Group failed to file four Toxic Chemical Release Inventory forms, known as Form Rs, which are required for chemicals at the facility. These violations were discovered after EPA’s inspectors noticed the company had not submitted the forms for 2007.

The environmental project will pay for emergency response equipment and training for the town of Sprague and other area emergency response units. It also requires Cascades to conduct a large-scale chemical spill exercise to gauge emergency preparedness and identify areas needing improvement.

Cascades filed the required Tier II forms for 2008 and 2009. The company also submitted the missing required Form Rs.