The Long Island Railroad, Long Island, N.Y., has settled a complaint by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over disposal of fluorescent lamps by paying a penalty of $43,875. Based on an inspection of the Hillside Maintenance Facility, Hollis, N.Y., last year and information received from the railroad about facilities at Richmond Hill Sheridan Shop, Richmond Hill, N.Y., and West Side Storage Yard, New York, the EPA found violations in the organization’s method of disposing of fluorescent lamps as regular garbage at the three facilities.
The railroad estimates it generated nearly 260,000 spent fluorescent lamps from 2003 to 2005. In July 2005, it determined its spent lamps were waste that needed special handling in accordance with EPA rules and put into place a program to recycle them. For more information about federal rules for the proper disposal of mercury- and other metal-containing lamps in the New York region, download a pdf from the EPA’s Web site.
