According to a consent agreement filed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Auto Shine Car Wash in Windham had a buried pipe that was secretly diverting millions of gallons of car wash wastewater tainted with lead, thallium and chromium into storm drains in Windham before it was removed in 2019. The business is now under new ownership that says it is “in compliance with applicable wastewater and stormwater requirements.” Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
A Windham car wash that was owned by a former Westbrook police detective is facing a $239,000 fine for illegally dumping about 2 million gallons of wastewater containing hazardous chemicals such as lead, thallium and chromium down the drain and trying to hide it.
It is one of several proposed Maine Department of Environmental Protection consent agreements that would resolve violations of environmental laws – some dating back five years – pending before the state Board of Environmental Protection, the agency’s enforcement arm.
In 2023, the board approved six consent agreements with fines or restitution totaling about $121,000.
Other pending violations include a tanning salon chain that dumped spent or broken lamps containing mercury in an Augusta basem*nt, an oil spill that closed Willard Beach in South Portland for four days in August 2021, and improperly stored hazardous waste at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington.
Auto Shine Car Wash was supposed to haul its wastewater off site for disposal, but a state inspector suspected that wasn’t happening after spotting suds in the storm drain during a 2019 inspection of the then 2-year-old Roosevelt Trail location, according to state records.
Upon investigation, the inspector discovered an unapproved underground pipe connecting the company’s wastewater storage tanks to the stormwater drain. The ground where the pipe was located had been paved over. When the inspector returned, the pipe had been removed.
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Based on documented water deliveries and daily traffic, the DEP estimates Auto Shine illegally dumped about 2 million gallons of contaminated wastewater since its 2017 opening, according to a proposed consent agreement.
According to lab results, Auto Shine’s wastewater – which could enter the groundwater when dumped down the drain – exceeded maximum state or federal contaminant levels for chromium, lead, sodium, thallium, forever chemicals and three hydrocarbons known to cause cancer.
At the time of the violation, the Windham car wash and another Auto Shine in Topsham were both owned by John Chase, a prominent real estate developer who was a retired Westbrook Police Department detective. Chase died in 2022.
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According to the proposed consent agreement – which is still subject to public comment before going to the Board of Environmental Protection for review – the DEP is willing to suspend all but $56,000 of the fine if Auto Shine follows the state’s corrective action plan.
“The facility is operating and being maintained in accordance with its permits and in compliance with applicable wastewater and stormwater requirements,” according to an emailed response from attorney David Van Slyke, who works for the Portland law firm Preti Flaherty and represents Auto Shine.
No one at Sun Tan City, which operates 11 salons in Maine and 250 across the country, nor Glow Brands, its parent company, returned calls or emails about the more than $100,000 in cleanup costs and fines connected to the illegal disposal of spent and broken tanning bed lamps.
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According to a proposed consent agreement, the Maine salons were sending their broken or spent tanning bed lamps to be illegally stored in the basem*nt of an Augusta apartment building in the same complex of interconnected buildings that houses the office of a chain co-owner, Dennis Guerrette.
The state was tipped off in July 2019 by a city code enforcement officer who responded to a complaint of a large amount of broken and spent lamps – which are considered hazardous waste because they contain mercury – piling up in the basem*nt of the building the Guerrette family had redeveloped in 2014.
State records show the local chain of franchised Sun Tan City salons, doing business as STC New England LLC, was supposed to be storing the spent lamps in a unit in Chelsea at Capital Area Self Storage, a facility owned by salon chain co-owners Glenn and William Guerrette.
During the investigation, DEP inspectors found broken lamps in a roll-off dumpster located near the Augusta apartment building that did not belong to Sun Tan City, indicating the owners had been throwing at least some lamps into the trash. By law, they are supposed to go into a hazardous waste landfill.
Willard Beach in South Portland was closed for four days in August 2021 because of oily water that was discharged from a pipe connected to a storm drain outside an auto repair shop. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Cory Sterling, the owner of the Vehicle Werks Garage in South Portland, may have to pay more than $50,000 to cover the state’s cost of cleaning up a spill of about 7,500 gallons of oily water and debris that closed Willard Beach for four days in August 2021.
According to the proposed consent order, Sterling was pressure washing the inside of the Cottage Road garage where he was planning to open an auto repair building when oily fluids began to back up and then overflow a collection pit in the garage bay floor.
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Sterling was trying to use detergent and absorbent materials to mop up the oily liquid that was spilling out of the garage, into the parking lot and down the storm drain when the South Portland Fire Department showed up after receiving complaints from beachgoers and residents.
Beachgoers complained about burning sensations when swimming and residents reported the strong smell of oil. The storm drain at Sterling’s garage – which for years had operated as Hill’s Service Station – eventually discharges through a pipe outfall at Willard Beach, about a half mile away.
The 4-acre, crescent-shaped beach stretches from Southern Maine Community College to Fisherman’s Point. The storm drain outfall pipe juts from the sand at the center of the beach, near the main entrance, bathhouse, snack bar and playground.
Emails and phone calls to the garage were not returned Wednesday.
Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington has agreed to pay $20,000 in fines for improperly storing hazardous waste, including overcrowded storage rooms and improperly labeled containers, and failing to conduct weekly inspections, train its employees or keep a waste log, state records show.
