The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has settled an enforcement case by agreeing to fund more than $400,000 of innovative environmental projects and pay a civil penalty of $150,000.
Under the terms of the settlement, MIT will develop a computer-based ''virtual campus'' compliance assistance tool to help universities and colleges nationwide to comply with environmental laws and will install a new facility using biofiltration which will reduce the rate of stormwater runoff in the Cambridge community by 50 percent and reduce the amount of solids in the runoff by 80 percent.
In addition, three environmental education projects will be developed and implemented in the community public school system.
The settlement stems from violations discovered in 1998 in 56 labs, in a medical waste incinerator and a power plant.
MIT was cited for 18 violations of federal hazardous waste laws, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
by Virginia Sutcliffe