Rhode Island Agency Fines Scrap Yard Owner

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management has fined the owner of a Hope Valley, RI, illegal scrap yard $81,000 for violating a dozen state and federal regulations governing solid waste disposal and hazardous waste management.

Roland Bowley, who has run a scrap metal salvage business in Hope Valley, RI, for 25 years without a town-issued junkyard permit, received a notice of violation early last month. The 12-page document cites numerous violations of Rhode Island's Refuse Disposal Act, DEM Rules and Regulations for Hazardous Waste Management and several Code of Federal Regulations for hazardous waste management.

The notice comes five months after officials from DEM's Office of Criminal Investigation initiated waste inspections at the scrap yard in August 2004.

In June, former Town Council candidate Kenneth Young filed a complaint with the agency documenting possible waste violations on the site. Two months later, DEM officials entered the property on a warrant and found 9,000 cubic yards of solid waste, including disposed tires, fuel tanks, gas cylinders and transformers.

Investigators also found 1,780 cubic yards of scrap metal, electronic components and junk vehicle parts on Townsend Road, a public right-of-way owned by the town of Hopkinton.

A waste oil sample taken from an improperly-marked drum tested at 51 parts per million for polychlorinated biphenyls - a manmade carcinogen - one part per millionm higher than DEM waste standards allow, according to the violation.

Investigators also identified 13.9 ppm of lead in a soil sample taken in an area where salvaged materials had allegedly been openly burned to remove plastic insulation from scrap metal. The lead level in the sample is nearly nine ppm higher than the agency's safety threshold.

Landowner Rose Townsend - who entered a verbal contract in 1980 allowing Bowley to use 6 acres of her property - has also been fined $35,000 by DEM.

"I don't know why I should be fined," Townsend said. "That's not my stuff. I had nothing to do with that junk. "

Bowley, who is 75, said Tuesday he has since filed an appeal with the agency seeking a formal hearing.

"I think they went overboard," he said of the fine. "I can't say much till we go have a hearing."

But DEM spokeswoman Gail Mastrati said Bowley's appeal was received on Feb. 1 after a 20-day window for written appeals. As a result, Bowley's request will not heard at a formal hearing, she said.

Bowley said he has removed tons of material from Townsend Road since September, though recent snowfall has impeded his efforts to comply with the agency's order to remove scrap material from town property.

In 1984, Bowley withdrew a request for a junkyard permit before the Town Council following a recommendation that he apply for a zone change. The Town Council knew about the unlicensed scrap yard as late as 1990, when a fire began on the property and sent one Hope Valley-Wyoming firefighter to a local hospital for exhaustion treatment.

DEM last month forwarded its findings to the state Attorney General's office, where spokesman Michael Healey said a review for possible prosecution could take "a matter of weeks." Westerley (Rhode Island) Sun