A Massachusetts-based cold storage warehouse and distribution company with a facility in East Hartford has settled alleged violations by the Environmental Protection Agency that it violated federal laws regulating the handling of hazardous chemicals.
The violations stemmed from the company’s use of ammonia at its facilities at 241 Park Ave., in East Hartford and New Bedford, Massachusetts. The East Hartford facility has since closed.
According to the EPA, Maritime International and its subsidiaries, Bridge Terminal and Connecticut Freezers, also known as Hartford Freezers, violated the Clean Air Act and the Community Right-To-Know Act by failing to take required steps to “design and maintain a safe facility and minimize the consequences of an accidental release of ammonia.”
Also, Maritime also failed to file hazardous chemical inventory reports with state and local emergency response agencies, according to the EPA.
The Clean Air Act requires users of hazardous substances to take steps to prevent and mitigate accidental releases. The Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act requires companies handling hazardous chemicals to notify state and local emergency response personnel of the presence of those chemicals.
As part of the settlement, Maritime International has paid a $195,000 settlement to the EPA. Also, it has agreed to install safety upgrades at two of its New Bedford facilities to help prevent ammonia releases, and to provide ammonia-related emergency response training to 26 first responders and refrigeration operators in the Hartford area.
This case stems from EPA inspections in the summer of 2018 following an ammonia release of about 3,200 pounds of anhydrous ammonia at the company’s Fish Island, New Bedford facility.
The company cooperated and took necessary steps to bring its facilities into compliance, the EPA said.
Anhydrous ammonia is highly corrosive to the skin, eyes, and lungs. Exposure to 300 parts per million is immediately dangerous to life and health.
In 2013, the EPA fined Maritime International and Connecticut Freezers for an ammonia release incident at its New Haven facility, which has also closed.
