In 2001, Southern Union began a program to remove from customers’ homes gas regulators that contained mercury. Southern Union initially had a contract with an environmental services company to safely remove the mercury from the regulators, which had been used in homes built before the 1960s to control the flow of gas.

Southern Union employees brought the regulators to a facility at the end of Tidewater Street in Pawtucket, on the edge of the Seekonk River. The contractor removed the mercury from the regulators, and Southern Union’s environmental coordinator shipped it to a facility for distillation.

The indictment alleges that the removal contract expired at the end of 2001 but that New England Gas technicians continued to remove the regulators from customers’ homes. The company allegedly stored the mercury-containing regulators in a vacant building at the Tidewater facility, some of them in plastic kiddie pools.

The company also stored liquid mercury in various containers in the building, the indictment alleges, and that mercury came from a variety of sources, including the locker of a company employee who had died.

In 2002 through 2004, a local company official wrote requests for proposals -- RFPs -- for removing the mercury that was collecting at the Tidewater facility. But the company allegedly never finalized the RFPs or sought bids.

By July 2004, about 165 mercury-containing regulators were stored at the Tidewater facility, as were other containers such as glass jars and a plastic jug, containing a total of more than a gallon of mercury, according to the indictment.

The Tidewater facility was in disrepair and there were gaps in the perimeter fencing, extensive graffiti on vacant buildings, broken windows, and broken doors. In May 2004, the company’s environmental coordinator documented evidence of attempted break-ins at the facility.

At three company safety committee meetings in 2004, maintenance employees expressed concern about the facility’s safety, but Southern Union took no action, according to the indictment.

In September 2004, the three young people broke into the mercury storage building, took several containers of liquid mercury and spilled mercury.

In October 2004, shortly after a company employee found the mercury spill, Southern Union arranged for an environmental services company to remove the mercury from Tidewater. But Southern Union allegedly failed to notify Pawtucket Fire Department and the state Fire Marshal about the spill, as required by federal law.

The indictment charges Southern Union with two counts of storing hazardous waste without a permit and one count of failing to notify the appropriate local emergency officials of a hazardous waste spill.

If convicted, knowingly storing hazardous waste without a permit carries a maximum fine of $50,000 for each day of violation.

The indictment alleges the span of the illegal storage in count one, was from Sept. 19, 2002, to Oct. 19, 2004, or 762 days. The alleged duration of count three, which alleges illegal storage of regulators that contained mercury, was from March 25, 2003, to Oct. 19, 2004, or 575 days.

At $50,000 per day, the maximum fine for those counts would be $66.85-million. The maximum fine for failing to report a hazardous waste spill is $500,000.