Another family business, the Standard Tank Cleaning Corporation of Bayonne, N.J., filed for bankuptcy in August and stopped most operations after New Jersey regulators sought multimillion-dollar pollution fines.

Last year Middlesex's noses produced $1.2 million in pollution fines.

The Environmental Education Grant Program was established by the Environmental Education Act of 1993, which mandates that 5 percent of all pollution fines and penalties collected annually by the Department of Environmental Protection be set aside for environmental education.

In the universe of pollution fines, Mr. Spinello said, penalties are not considered unusually large until they reach $100,000, and some companies have been fined millions for persistent serious violation.

Last November, Mr. Jorling filed a civil complaint against New York City seeking $81 million in pollution fines and threatening to close the landfill by the summer of 1991.