The U.S. EPA has a new target for its investigations — universities and colleges that aren’t complying with environmental laws. “Our inspectors have not been on one campus where they have not found serious problems,” says Rene Henry in the EPA’s Philadelphia office. For example, Boston University was fined $750,000 in 1997 after a tank leaked 1,000 gallons of oil into the Charles River. Last December, the University of Hawaii was hit with the largest penalty ever issued by the EPA to a university: $1.7 million for hazardous waste violations. EPA spokesperson Mark Merchant said the agency started focusing on schools because pollution from industrial sources has been greatly reduced.
