Improper storage of a chemical “more explosive than TNT” in Bangor has led Maine’s Community College System to pay $126,000 in fines, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday.

The chemical, called picric acid, reacts with metals to form crystals that can explode with heat, friction or even vibration. Picric acid is often used as a trigger for other explosives.

Once the chemical was found in a storage closet at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor during a regularly scheduled EPA inspection in May 2003, the school took immediate action, campus spokeswoman Elizabeth Clayton said Tuesday.

All picric acid was removed from the building and detonated by a Maine State Police bomb squad within 24 hours of the discovery, she said.

“We took it very seriously,” she said.

The explosion was equal to that of several sticks of dynamite, according to an EPA statement.

The picric acid had been left over from a now defunct medical lab program at the Bangor campus and is no longer necessary, Clayton said.

While picric acid is relatively rare, it has been found in outdated chemistry labs throughout the country – including in at least one Maine high school where it was discovered during a state Department of Environmental Protection cleanup several years ago.

The community college inspection also turned up other, less dramatic substances stored in ways that could pose a danger to staff and students at both Eastern Maine Community College and at Southern Maine Community College in Portland and that violated the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Maine’s hazardous waste management rules, according to EPA.

In response to the problems, both campuses have put new safety measures in place, system spokeswoman Alice Kirkpatrick said Tuesday.

In Bangor, safety policies were rewritten to mandate quarterly internal safety audits as well as regular sweeps to ensure that dangerously large amounts of chemicals or outdated supplies weren’t being stored on campus. The school also hired a new safety officer and installed a universal waste transfer site, Clayton said.

A few weeks ago, EPA announced a similar settlement with the Maine College of Art in Portland for the improper storage of other chemicals discovered during an EPA inspection. The agency has been visiting campuses nationwide since 1999 offering inspections and workshops to improve chemical safety.

For more information about EPA’s college and university compliance initiative, visit www.epa.gov/region01/assistance/univ/.