Environmental Garage Audits & the EPA

Environmental Audit Workshop for Municipal Highway Garages

The Maine Local Roads Center and the Maine Chapter of APWA sponsored a seminar on August 2nd at MMA in Augusta to review the EPA regulations which pertain to any highway garage in Maine. Over 65 people attended and 3 of those towns were lucky to receive a free environmental audit courtesy of MaineDOT.

The main “push” at this session was to alert towns that they have an opportunity to go to the bottom of the EPA’s inspection list IF THEY APPLY BEFORE OCTOBER 1, 2001. Since this session, the EPA Boston Office has decided to extend the deadline for Maine applications to October 30 (nothing else changes). If you decide NOT to participate, then your Town will revert to normal inspection status and will be treated no better or no worse than all other nonparticipants. It’s worth the effort !

This application basically says that your Town is willing to do an environmental audit by December 31, 2001, however, the EPA understands the short time period and will work with your Town as long as you contact them at their Boston office at 617/918-1016 (Nancy Barmakian).

This audit program asks you to hire an independent consultant to perform an inspection and identify any problems you may have at your facility regarding such things as bulk oil storage/handling, cleaning solvents, floor drains, spill prevention plans, etc. There are several engineering firms which provide these services and they can be found below. Basic price to do these inspections ranges from a low of $1,000 to about $5,000 -- it all depends on the size of your facility and how good (or bad) you are at housekeeping. It is possible to do a self-audit, but if you do not have properly trained personnel , then the audit may be rather incomplete.

For more information and to view a Fact Sheet on Audit Policy and a Garage “checklist”, please refer to http://www.epa.gov/region01/steward/neeat/compliance.html

You can also refer to http://www.epa.gov/region01/steward/neeat/munis1.html and click on the Compliance" link on this page and it will take you to a garage checklist of sorts and it also has a list of violations they have been seeing most frequently in highway garage facilities.

Give this some serious consideration as many municipal garages throughout New England have been cited and are looking at stiff fines/penalties. The MDOT has completed audits of all its garages and have avoided some very hefty penalties as a result of cleanup and good housekeeping practices.

Environmental Audit Companies

Jacques Whitford, Inc., 75 Pearl St.-- Suite 201, Portland ME 04101, Todd Coffin-- 207/761-7790
Wright-Pierce Engineers, 99 Main Street, Topsham, ME 04086 (207)725-8721
Greg McVeigh, email: gjm@wright-pierce.com
Environmental Engineering and Remediation, 222 St. John St., Portland, ME 04102, (207)828-1272 Steve Dyer, mailto:sdyer@eerinc.com
Harding ESE, 511 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101, (207) 775-5401 Karen Arnold, email: mailto:kearnold@mackec.com
Weston & Sampson, 5 Centennial Dr, Peabody, MA, 01960 (978)977-0110
Paul Sutton
Beta Group, 6 Blackstone Valley Pl, Lincoln, RI 02865 (401)333-2382
Jim Coppola
Rizzo Assocs, One Grant St, Framingham, MA 01701 (508)903-2308
Charles Button
Brown & Caldwell, 13 Branch St, Suite 208, Methuen, MA 01844
(978) 794-0336 Loretta Sanford
SEA Consultants, 485 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139 (617)497-7800
Betsy Fredrick
Marin Environmental, Inc., 600 Charlton Street, Southbridge, MA 01550
(508) 764-8755 Gerald M. Clark (Jerry)
S. W Cole Engineering, 37 Liberty Drive, Bangor, ME 04401
(207) 848-5714 David J. Dunning, email: info@swcloe.com
Woodard And Curran
41 Hutchins Dr.
Portland, ME 04012
800-426-4262 or 774-2112 ext 3314 contact: Bruce Nicholson
As of August, 2001, CES Inc in Brewer ME apparently may be getting in this business too.

Please Note the foloowing:

There are probably other companies which offer these services, but the Center is not aware of them at this time. If there are other companies, the Center would be happy to add them to the list.
This list is not in any particular order nor an endorsement of any kind and any municipality contemplating doing business with any of these companies should verify/confirm the companies abilities.

Addtional Information

EPA Fact Sheet, Public Works Checklist, Common Violations (Offsite)

EPA - Public Works Garages: "Stormwater discharges from public works garages do not fall within the definition of stormwater associated with an industrial facility..."
Q&A Letter (2003) from Linda M. Murphy, Director of Office of Ecosystem, EPA

This page last updated on 1/10/13

maine local roads center

Environmental Garage Audits & the EPA