What a Dollar Figure Cannot Count

Folcroft, Pennsylvania is a small borough of roughly 6,700 people pressed up against the southern edge of Delaware County. It sits between Marcus Hook, one of the most industrialized stretches of the Delaware River corridor, and Chester, a city that has spent decades fighting the concentration of polluting industries inside its borders. These communities are not wealthy. They do not have armies of environmental lawyers. They rely, entirely, on companies following the law and on regulators enforcing it, to know what is being processed in the facilities around them.

EPCRA, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, was passed in 1986 in direct response to the Bhopal disaster, when a chemical leak at a pesticide plant in India killed thousands of people overnight because nearby residents had no idea what was being stored next door. Congress decided that American communities had the right to know. The law is blunt: if you process toxic chemicals above certain quantities, you file a public report. You keep records. You document what you used. That information goes into a database that anyone can access. It is designed so that a parent in Folcroft can look up what is being processed at the cleaning products plant on Delmar Drive and make informed decisions about where their kids play, what their water might contain, whether to push for more monitoring.

Bullen did not file those records for three years running. Not for hundreds of raw materials. The company processed glycol ethers, chemicals linked to reproductive harm and developmental effects, in quantities exceeding 25,000 pounds annually, and it kept no usable documentation for the inspector to verify. The public right-to-know that Congress guaranteed in 1986, the right born from a catastrophe that killed thousands, was denied to the people of Folcroft for 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Those three years were not quiet years in American industrial communities. They overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic, when respiratory health suddenly became the most urgent public concern in a generation. Communities downwind and downstream from industrial facilities were paying attention to air quality and chemical exposure in ways they had never been forced to before. The records Bullen was legally required to keep, the ones that could have told regulators and residents exactly what was moving through that Folcroft plant, were not there.

There is no way to assign a dollar value to a community’s right to know what chemicals surround it. There is no settlement figure that compensates for three years of darkness. The $11,949 penalty does not represent justice. It represents the bureaucratic minimum required to close a file.

The Document Language That Lets Them Walk Away Clean

Every quote below is lifted directly from the EPA Consent Agreement and Final Order, Docket No. EPCRA-03-2024-0059, filed January 10, 2024. Read these slowly.

“At the time of the CEI, Respondent failed to prepare or make available to the inspector any records of its TRI chemical activities for calendar years 2019-2021, other than for certain glycol ethers, despite hundreds of raw materials being processed, and having historically been processed, at the Facility.”

• This confirms that the record-keeping failure was sweeping, covering hundreds of raw materials across three full years, the EPA inspection confirmed there was simply nothing there.
• The phrase “having historically been processed” signals that regulators understood this was a long-standing pattern of operations at the facility, making the absence of records more significant, not less.
• The one partial exception, “certain glycol ethers,” is itself the subject of a separate violation: even those records were insufficient to support Bullen’s choice of reporting form (Form A vs. Form R).

“Respondent processed more than 25,000 pounds of glycol ethers at the Facility during each of calendar year 2019 through 2021.”

• The 25,000-pound threshold is the legal trigger for mandatory public reporting under EPCRA Section 313. Bullen crossed that threshold every single year across the violation window.
• Glycol ethers are federally listed toxic chemicals. Exceeding 25,000 pounds annually is a material quantity, not a trace or incidental amount. The law was designed precisely for situations like this one.

“Except as provided in Paragraph 5, above, Respondent neither admits nor denies the specific factual allegations set forth in this Consent Agreement.”

• This is the legal mechanism by which the six documented violations are settled without Bullen ever going on record as having done anything wrong. The company pays $11,949 and the factual record dies on the page of this agreement.
• The only carve-out, Paragraph 5, covers jurisdictional admissions only. Bullen admits the EPA has authority over it. That is the full extent of corporate accountability in this document.

“EPA reserves the right to commence action against any person, including Respondent, in response to any condition which EPA determines may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health, public welfare, or the environment.”

• This reservation of rights acknowledges that the settlement does not resolve potential future harm. It protects the EPA’s legal options but does nothing for Folcroft residents who lived through those three undocumented years already.
• The phrase “imminent and substantial endangerment” sets a very high bar for further EPA action. The language is protective of the agency’s options, not protective of the community.

How This Failure Ripples Through a Community

Public Health

Glycol ethers are not benign industrial solvents. Their documented health profile made Bullen’s record-keeping failures a direct threat to the community’s ability to protect itself.

• Glycol ethers are federally classified as toxic chemicals under EPCRA Section 313(c) and 40 C.F.R. § 372.65(c), based on evidence linking certain compounds in this chemical category to reproductive toxicity, developmental harm, and damage to blood-forming organs. Workers and nearby residents deserve to know when more than 25,000 pounds of these substances are being processed annually within their community.
• The EPCRA reporting system feeds directly into state and local emergency planning. When companies like Bullen fail to file or maintain records, local fire departments, emergency responders, and public health planners operate without accurate information about what chemical volumes exist in their jurisdiction. A spill, fire, or air release at the Folcroft facility during the violation window would have confronted responders with an information void.
• The three-year violation window overlapped entirely with the COVID-19 pandemic, a period when communities already carrying disproportionate environmental burdens faced compounded respiratory risks. Folcroft sits in Delaware County, which borders some of the most industrially burdened census tracts in Pennsylvania. Suppression of toxic chemical data during this window denied residents and health researchers the baseline information needed to assess cumulative exposures.

Economic Inequality

The structure of this enforcement action, and the penalty it produced, reflects a system that allocates legal compliance costs in proportion to how much a company can afford to fight, not how much harm was done.

• The $11,949 penalty for six counts of violations spanning three years is a number that means functionally nothing to a functioning business. It is not a deterrent; it is the cost of doing paperwork incorrectly, priced below the cost of a mid-tier legal consultation. Any rational compliance officer at any company reading this consent agreement learns the same lesson: get caught without records, pay less than $2,000 per year of violation.
• The community affected, Folcroft and the surrounding Delaware County corridor, has a significantly lower median household income than wealthier Philadelphia suburbs. Residents in lower-income industrial communities near manufacturing facilities bear the highest environmental health burden while having the fewest resources to conduct independent air quality monitoring, hire environmental attorneys, or fund litigation against corporations that ignore reporting requirements.
• The legal mechanism of “neither admits nor denies” is itself an economic instrument. It allows Bullen to settle, move on, and face no civil liability from private parties because there is no official finding of wrongdoing on the record. Residents who might want to pursue claims related to toxic exposure have one fewer evidentiary tool available to them. That tool was traded away for $11,949.
• Respondent was required to bear its own attorney’s fees, but that provision cuts in favor of the corporation, not the community. Bullen spent money on legal representation to negotiate the lowest possible penalty. The residents of Folcroft had no attorney negotiating on their behalf in this proceeding.

Pricing a Community’s Right to Know

For context: the per-day penalty works out to the approximate cost of a fast food meal. EPCRA Section 325(c) authorizes penalties up to $37,500 per day per violation for the most serious cases. The EPA’s own Enforcement Response Policy calibrates penalties based on seriousness, good faith, and history of compliance. Bullen received credit for “good faith efforts to comply,” a factor that helps explain the low number. The community received nothing.

The Compliance Process Bullen Bypassed

EPCRA Section 313 is a straightforward compliance ladder. Bullen knocked multiple rungs off it for three years running.

What You Can Do. Who to Watch. Where to Push.

Bullen is back in business. The settlement is closed. The regulatory ledger is wiped clean for $11,949. Here is how to keep the pressure on.

The People Who Signed This Deal

• Scott Jarden, President, The Bullen Companies signed the consent agreement on November 29, 2023 on behalf of the company. Contact information for the facility is 1640 Delmar Drive, Folcroft, PA 19032; email of record in this proceeding: scott@bullenonline.com.
• Karen Melvin, Director, Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division, U.S. EPA Region 3 signed as the EPA’s lead on this matter and recommended the Final Order.
• Andrew W. Ingersoll, Assistant Regional Counsel, U.S. EPA Region 3 was the attorney of record for EPA. His email of record: ingersoll.andrew@epa.gov.
• Joseph J. Lisa, Regional Judicial and Presiding Officer, U.S. EPA Region 3 issued the Final Order on January 10, 2024.

Watchlist: Who Has Authority Here

• U.S. EPA Region 3 (Philadelphia): The agency that conducted the inspection, negotiated the settlement, and retains enforcement authority over any future EPCRA or environmental endangerment claims against Bullen. File complaints or tips at: epa.gov/tips.
• Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP): EPCRA requires TRI reports to be submitted to both the EPA and the designated State agency. PA DEP holds independent authority to act on toxic chemical reporting failures at facilities in Folcroft. Contact through dep.pa.gov.
• Delaware County Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC): Local Emergency Planning Committees exist specifically to receive and act on TRI data for community emergency preparedness. Delaware County’s LEPC should be informed of the three-year data gap at the Bullen facility and asked to verify current reporting compliance.
• U.S. EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Program: The public TRI database (available at epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program) is the tool your right to know depends on. Search The Bullen Companies, Folcroft, PA to monitor what is currently being reported and compare it against historical filings to spot gaps.
• EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG): If you believe EPA enforcement actions are systematically underpenalizing industrial polluters in environmental justice communities, file a hotline complaint at epa.gov/office-inspector-general/epa-oig-hotline. The OIG investigates whether EPA enforcement adequately protects communities.

What Residents and Organizers Can Do Right Now

• Search the TRI database today. Go to epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program and search for “Bullen” in Folcroft, PA. Verify that reports for 2022 and 2023 have been filed. If they are missing or sparse, that is actionable information for a new complaint.
• Contact your Delaware County Council representative and ask them to formally inquire with PA DEP about Bullen’s current TRI compliance status and whether independent air quality monitoring has been conducted near the Folcroft facility.
• Connect with existing environmental justice organizations already active in the Delaware County and Chester area, including Clean Air Council (cleanair.org) and PennEnvironment (pennenvironment.org). These groups have the legal and technical infrastructure to amplify local concerns into regulatory action.
• Document your community. If you live or work near 1640 Delmar Drive, keep a personal log of any unusual odors, visible emissions, or health symptoms. Collectively reported health patterns in industrial neighborhoods carry weight in regulatory proceedings. Connect with neighbors. Build a record.
• File a FOIA request. Under the Freedom of Information Act, you can request all EPA correspondence and inspection reports related to The Bullen Companies from EPA Region 3. That documentation may reveal more about what the inspector actually found on March 28, 2023 than what is summarized in the consent agreement.