Walden Environmental Engineering, PLLC (Walden) was contacted by a car dealership business that received a Notice of Violation (NOV) from the New York City (NYC) Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for failure to submit a Right to Know Tier II Annual Report for a new satellite facility. Although Walden had filed Tier II Reports for other facilities operated by this dealership, Walden was unaware of and had not been directed to file an annual Report for this new location. The Facility was a satellite site for car inspections and maintenance and was required to file with the NYC DEP due to the storage, use and handling of hazardous substances. The NYC DEP discovered the service facility during a routine inspection, and the NOV was received by the dealership two months after the annual March 1st filing deadline.
In response to the NYC DEP Notice, Walden, on behalf of the dealership, completed an inspection and inventory of the chemicals at the service facility and submitted a RTK filing to bring the facility into compliance. Fortunately, the facility qualified for an exemption due to the quantity of chemicals being stored falling under the set threshold values. Therefore, the client did not owe fees to the NYC DEP for this facility. However, assessment of the chemical inventory at the facility and formally filing for an exemption was required in order to meet the NYC DEP exemption terms.
Filing the exemption at the time of annual reporting deadline would have prevented the issuance of the violation notice from the NYC DEP. In this case, the car dealership was able to avoid a fine with Walden acting quickly on their behalf to resolve the NYC DEP violation and by filing for exemption.