DOVER — Delaware State University has been fined $32,000 for breaches of state environmental regulations and improper record-keeping.
In a notice posted online May 31, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control stated DSU had a boiler operating at below the minimum efficiency, ran generators on designed “ozone action days” and did not keep certain records, violating several permits the university holds.
Boilers, for instance, are required to run at levels of at least 70 percent efficiency, but one boiler fell short of that mark during a March 2013 inspection. The university was also found to have been operating a generator during a day when high pollution had been identified and emergency generators were supposed to be shut down temporarily.
Delaware State opted to pay $32,275 to the state and perform an environmental improvement project, which will see it renovate two boilers. It also had the option of writing a check for $56,925.
“Obviously there were some violations,” DSU spokesman Carlos Holmes said, noting the school has a “good relationship” with DNREC. “Most of them were a few years ago. We have since made the adjustments and the corrections we need to make in areas of record-keeping and that type of thing.”