Brown University may be fined $500,000 for violations of federal environmental statutes, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report released last week.

In the report, the EPA alleges that Brown improperly handled and stored hazardous waste coming from university laboratories and waste storage facilities.

Brown--which was responsible for a 1996 oil spill which leaked 60 gallons of fuel into the Narragansett Bay--was also cited for failing to develop plans to prevent future oil spills.

The EPA report--a follow-up to the agency's May 1999 inspection at Brown--orders Brown to comply immediately with environmental regulations. The inspection was part of an EPA initiative to increase monitoring efforts at New England colleges.

In response to the report, interim Brown President Sheila Blumstein issued a statement that the university "is fully committed to protecting the environment and maintaining a safe and healthy campus and workplace."

"None of the charges outlined in the EPA's report posed an immediate or long-term threat to anyone's health or safety," she said.

Freid said she believes that the EPA's strict scrutiny of universities has been awkward because the laws are "really designed with big polluters in mind."

"It's kind of like putting a square peg in a round hole," she said.