HOWELL — The Howell K-8 School District Board of Education has paid a $5,000 fine for noncompliance with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding hazardous materials.
At an Aug. 7 meeting, board members voted to pay a $5,000 fine to the DEP that was related to the underground storage of hazardous materials, as well as financial assurance issues.
Board President Mary Cerretani, Vice President Stephen Levine and board members Suzanne Brennan, Jeanne DePompo, Albert Miller, Timothy O’Brien, Jeanette Smith, John Van Noy and Chuck Welsh voted “yes” on the issue.
According to information provided by the board, the school district formerly owned a gasoline dispensing facility at 280 Old Tavern Road, Howell, where a 6,000- gallon underground storage tank for oil and a 550-gallon waste-oil-container underground storage tank were located. The tanks have since been removed and the board’s underground storage tank registration has been terminated.
The violations levied against the board by the DEP were for failure of the owner and operator to maintain evidence of financial assurance, failure to provide overfill prevention for all tanks due to a faulty alarm system, failure to have and maintain a functioning monitoring system according to the requirements of the manufacturer, failure to perform an acceptable method of release detection monitoring for the tanks and/or underground piping, and failure to perform either monthly release detection monitoring or an appropriate line tightness test every three years.
According to the settlement agreement, the DEP determined that the board has corrected the violations and was willing to accept a $5,000 payment in lieu of the original $10,000 fine.
“We have an account for compliance and construction, so the $5,000 will be coming out of that,” Business Administrator Ron Sanasac said.
In other news, the board approved two revisions of policies that deal with pupil smoking, and smoking in school buildings and on school grounds. According to Superintendent of Schools Enid Golden, the revisions now include electronic smoking devices in the policies’ definition of smoking.
The revisions also include structures such as grandstands and support buildings as part of what constitutes school grounds. Smoking is prohibited in those areas.