VOL. CXVIII, NO. 113
DAILYBAROMETER.COM
FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2016
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
OSU fined by the EPA
University charged with hazardous materials violations By Elliott Nelson News Contributor
If it concerns the safety of (OSU) students, faculty and staff, then that is something that’s very important to the university Clay Simmons OSU Chief Compliance Officer
HONG LIN | THE DAILY BAROMETER
Oregon State University agreed to pay $275,000 to the Environmental Protection Agency in response to hazardous materials violations found during a routine inspection in 2013.
Oregon State University agreed to pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) $275,000 for hazardous materials violations found during a routine inspection in 2013, according to Steve Clark, OSU Vice President of University Relations and Marketing. “(OSU was fined) for the failure to properly analyze and manage hazardous waste in their laboratories and in their hazardous waste accumulation building,” said Kevin Schanilec, who is an EPA employee. “(The waste) was in approximately 1,900 separate containers—mostly laboratory waste.” OSU officials said that the overall amount of waste was not very big, and that the fine was not something that they foresaw. “This was not something we really expected,” said Clay Simmons, OSU Chief Compliance Officer, about the EPA violations. “On par, it’s a rather small amount (of waste),” Clark said. “Any matter such as this is really significant, but the concerns brought by the EPA dealt with about one percent of the material that we handle at the university in a year.” However, Clark said that doesn’t mean the university is taking this situation lightly. “This was a serious matter, but it dealt with labeling of materials, it dealt with the dating of those materials, and it dealt with their storage, and it did not deal with the university disposing matters or materials in an improper way,” Clark said. According to Schanilec, it is also important to realize that whoever dealt with these hazardous waste materials didn’t handle them properly. In response to the EPA violations and a few months after being fined in 2013, OSU began adding environmental health and safety staff to handle and dispose of hazardous materials more closely. By the end of 2014, OSU began to train and educate other personnel about dealing with hazardous materials. OSU also established the university chief compliance officer position as well as an executive compliance committee to have oversight from the highest level at
OSU, Clark said. According to Simmons, OSU’s compliance office handles issues such as laboratory safety, athletics compliance and Title IX compliance issues. Any compliance issues placed on the university by law or in relation to policy are within the parameters of what they work on, Simmons said. Simmons is working on building a program at OSU that reasonably assures the federal government that OSU is taking steps to comply with all of their regulations. “These assessment and reporting systems give us the confidence that we are following the procedures required by the EPA,” Clark said. “It’s a constant process of education, assessment, training and proper procedures.” In the laboratories, the hazardous materials were something that OSU personnel would walk by potentially everyday, Schanilec said. “The main buildings (the hazardous materials were found in) were Weniger Hall and Gilbert Hall,” said Schanilec. According to Clark, there were no injuries to OSU faculty, students, or staff due to the hazardous waste violations. “I have heard of fines like this at other universities,” Simmons said. “Usually the EPA or (Department of Environmental Quality) will come in and do an inspection, and they’ll find a couple of minor issues. It could be anything from unlabeled chemical storage containers to leaving sharps out.” The $275,000 OSU agreed to pay in fines on March 14 of this year to the federal government comes from the general fund budget of the university, according Clark. According to Simmons, OSU student, faculty and staff safety is of the utmost importance to the university. “If it concerns the safety of (OSU) students, faculty and staff, then that’s something that’s very important to the university,” Simmons said. baro.news@oregonstate.edu
Disc Jam takes flight on campus
Students make “Worldʼs First Flying Disc”
By Michael Kiever News Contributor
Future Oregon State students Alex Dassise and Logan Insinga, seniors in high school at the time, were playing a simple game of catch on the beach. Only they were not using a ball—they were using an expensive Bluetooth speaker. “We were throwing the speaker back and forth, but not very far because we didn’t want to break it,” Insinga said. “I was spinning it really quickly, and it sounded cool to us. At that point, I was like ‘Alex, dude, we could put the speaker on the Frisbee.’” “At that moment, the idea of the Disc Jam was born,” Dassise
said. “The Disc Jam is the world’s first musical flying disc.” Now in their last term as freshmen at OSU, the idea for the Disc Jam has turned into a reality. With the help of the Austin Entrepreneurship Program (AEP), the Disc Jam recently sold out all 25 of its beta models, which were put for sale to the public for $25. “We sold 25, and we’ve got more people asking for more. However, we’re still trying to figure the best way of building those right now. It’s a lot of intensive labor. To build those, it has literally taken blood and sweat,” Dassise said. While the beta sold out quickly, the final product is still about a year away from being widely available. The Disc Jam team, which now comprises of Insinga, Dassise and junior Spencer Kleweno, has plans of
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finding a manufacturer to mass produce an injection mold for the disc. Currently, the Disc Jam is comprised of two parts: the disc and the speaker. The 3D printed injection mold would bring the two together, creating a sleeker look and taking away the need to bolt the speaker onto the disc. “Right now, we want to get a quote for an injection mold so we could mass produce, but it will be midsummer before we get it,” Kleweno said. “We’d really like to release at the beginning of spring, because that is the prime time for Frisbee buying. Right now is the prime time to start selling, but we just aren’t ready for it. We’ve got next year. “ The speaker for playing music is the main difference between the Disc Jam and other types of
NICKI SILVA | THE DAILY BAROMETER
Alex Dassise and Logan Insinga, freshman at OSU, turned their ideas of putting
See Frisbee Page 8 speakers into frisbees into a reality through the Austen Entrepreneurship Program.
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