Environmental Protection Agency Explains Reasons For Town Fuel Spill Fine

By Andrew Gorosko

Federal environmental officials have explained the reasons why they are seeking a fine against the town for a December fuel spill that released 4,000 gallons of #2 heating fuel from the boiler room at Reed Intermediate School at Fairfield Hills.

Although the federal Clean Water Act allows the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to seek up to $32,500 in fines against the town for the fuel spill, EPA officials have said they expect the town eventually would be fined some lesser amount.

In documents received by the town on April 4, Ken Moraff, the enforcement manager for the EPA’s Boston regional office, writes, in part, “Although…the maximum penalty that the town could face in this type of enforcement action is $32,500, EPA encourages quick resolution of these matters and is willing to resolve this matter for a penalty less than this amount.”

Town Attorney David Grogins plans to meet with EPA officials to discuss the agency’s formal complaint and pursuit of a fine against the town for the fuel spill.

In the complaint, the EPA states it is seeking the fine “for the discharge of oil into or upon the navigable waters of the United States…in a quantity that has been determined ‘may be harmful.’”

The EPA defines the phrase “may be harmful to the public health or welfare or the environment” in context of whether the spill violates applicable water quality standards, or if the spill creates an oil film or oil sheen on the water or on its shorelines, or if a sludge or emulsion is deposited beneath the water surface or on its shorelines.

According to the EPA, approximately 100 gallons of the spilled heating fuel flowed from the school along a trench containing a sanitary sewer line and then entered Deep Brook and the downstream Pootatuck River.

A major fuel spill cleanup is now underway within Reed School, where wells have been drilled through the concrete floor to recover what may be 2,000 gallons of #2 heating fuel lying beneath that building.

More than a third of the spilled fuel has been recovered so far, in a project that is expected to continue for several months. Town officials have designated $1.2 million in town spending for the cleanup work.

State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials were not available to comment on the progress of the fuel spill cleanup project.

In the EPA’s formal complaint against the town, Mr Moraff writes that Deep Brook joins the Pootatuck River, which then joins the Housatonic River, which then flows into Long Island Sound, which opens into the Atlantic Ocean. All of those waters are considered to be “waters of the United States,” over which the EPA has jurisdiction.

EPA states that sometime between last December 23 and 29, a fuel pump and/or pipes that connect a boiler inside the school’s boiler room to a buried 20,000-gallon fuel storage tank began to leak and then discharged approximately 4,000 gallons of #2 heating fuel into a concrete spill-containment trench in the boiler room.

“The oil traveled through cracks in the foundation of the floor trench and into the [crushed stone] bedding material of a [four-inch-diameter sanitary] sewer line below the facility. A portion of the oil traveled along a series of trenches containing crushed stones surrounding various sanitary sewer lines until a portion of the oil ultimately flowed into Deep Brook,” according to EPA.

Because oil is lighter than water, when the spilled oil passed beneath Deep Brook in the crushed-stone bedding alongside a 21-inch-diameter sewer line there, the oil rose upward into the brook.

The spill was discovered on December 30. A heavy petroleum odor and oil sheen on Deep Brook and the Pootatuck River triggered a fire department response, after which the fuel spill at the school was found. Reed School students were on vacation at the time.

Deep Brook contains Class A water, and is one of only eight streams in the state where wild trout reproduce naturally. Class A water is considered drinking-water quality.

Filtration equipment is now in use near Deep Brook to prevent any additional heating oil from entering the stream. The effect of the fuel spill on the stream’s aquatic life will not be known until midyear, when the DEP conducts its annual trout census there. The stream is a Wild Trout Management Area.

The town’s attorneys have been reviewing whether insurance coverage would reimburse the town for some fuel spill cleanup costs.

Also, the town’s attorneys have been reviewing the various contracts that the town entered for Reed School’s construction to learn if cleanup costs can be recovered for the town through legal action.

Reed School, which houses fifth- and sixth-grade students, opened for classes in January 2003. Haynes Construction Company of Seymour was the general contractor for school construction.