EPA Enforcement Actions to Reduce Pollution and Improve Compliance with Clean Water Laws at Marina and Boat Yard Facilities in Massachusetts
BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a series of enforcement actions that will reduce pollution and improve compliance with critical clean water laws at marina and boat yard facilities in Massachusetts.
"Marinas are critical to the economic vitality of numerous communities across New England, and it's imperative that those communities have clean water to support local tourism and recreation, especially with summer coming," said EPA New England acting Regional Administrator Deb Szaro. "EPA is committed to working with marinas to be good stewards for the benefit of the communities they support and for New England's coastal waters."
EPA will continue to actively inspect marinas and boat yards as the boating season soon starts in New England to ensure marinas and boat yards are fully complying with their obligations under the Clean Water Act. Industrial marine activity has the potential to contain significant quantities of pollutants in its stormwater, and polluted stormwater can have a detrimental impact on the surrounding water quality and aquatic life. Marinas also often store quantities of oil that require a facility to have a current oil spill prevention plan.
The recent enforcement actions include:
- Martha's Vineyard Shipyard, Inc. (Vineyard Haven, Mass.): The company could not produce documentation to EPA showing it had conducted routine facility inspections, assessments, or monitoring and had not submitted annual reports, as required under the Clean Water Act. Failure to perform these actions left the facility without information needed to minimize the mixing of stormwater with pollutants and discharging to the nearby waters. MV Shipyard also did not have an oil spill prevention plan. While EPA is not aware that a spill has occurred, the failure to prepare a current plan created an increased risk of environmental harm should a spill occur. MV Shipyard agreed to pay a $26,526 penalty to resolve the violations.
- Ryan Marine Services, Inc. (Marblehead, Mass.): EPA issued a formal order to Ryan Marine Services to stop discharging wastewater from its facility without a permit and to fully comply with the terms of its Clean Water Act stormwater permit. Within one year of EPA's order, the company is required to send EPA a progress report summarizing whether RMS has fulfilled its obligations under its permit. RMS also agreed to pay a $20,000 penalty to resolve these wastewater and stormwater violations.
- Prime Marina Vineyard Haven (Vineyard Haven, Mass.): During an EPA inspection, the company could not produce documentation showing it had been conducting routine facility inspections, assessments or monitoring or producing the annual reports required under the Clean Water Act. Prime Marina also did not have a current oil spill prevent plan in place, only one from 2004 when the facility was owned and operated by a different company. Prime Marina agreed to pay a $15,721 penalty to resolve these violations.
- Marblehead Trading Company (Marblehead, Mass.): MTC operates three sites in Marblehead and could not produce documentation of required routine facility inspections, quarterly visual assessments, water quality monitoring results or annual reports required under the Clean Water Act for most of the quarters since 2015. The company agreed to pay a $15,000 penalty to resolve the violations.
- Beverly Port Marina (Beverly, Mass.): EPA found that the marina was not performing and documenting certain types of mandatory Clean Water Act facility inspections and water quality monitoring efforts and lacked an oil spill prevention plan. EPA also observed evidence of a failure to prevent wastewater from boat pressure washing operations from reaching the Danvers River. Under agreements with EPA, the marina agreed to improve compliance with the clean water permitting requirements, develop stormwater and oil spill management plans, perform and document regular facility inspections and pay a $3,500 penalty.
- Liberty Marina (Danvers, Mass.): Based on EPA's inspection and evaluation of additional related information, the agency determined that Liberty Marina failed to submit all of its required annual reports and take corrective actions to address discharges of certain pollutants of concern above certain benchmark standards, as required by the Clean Water Act. EPA issued a formal order to Liberty Marina requiring it to come into compliance with its Clean Water Act permit, reevaluate its water sampling locations and provide EPA with a report on its actions to comply with its permit after one year.
Background Information:
EPA website on industrial stormwater: https://www.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater-discharges-industrial-activities
EPA website on Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure regulations: https://www.epa.gov/oil-spills-prevention-and-preparedness-regulations