Fuel Spill Penalty To

Benefit Environment

By Andrew Gorosko

The town and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have reached a tentative agreement stating the terms of a fine that the EPA would levy against the town for a fuel spill last December at Reed Intermediate School at Fairfield Hills, in which an estimated 4,000 gallons of #2 heating fuel leaked from fuel lines in the school basement.

The overall fine would be $15,000, of which $5,000 would be in the form of cash, and $10,000 would be in the form of town contributions toward environmental projects along the Pootatuck River and its tributary Deep Brook.

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

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 fuel spill cleanup is continuing at Reed School where approximately 1,600 gallons of the spilled fuel have been recovered.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said the town recommended to the EPA that the town should pay one-third of the environmental fine as cash and two-thirds of the fine in the form of town assistance to Trout Unlimited in two environmental programs. Trout Unlimited is a private environmental protection group that works to protect coldwater fisheries as trout habitat.

Town Attorney David Grogins said the two town-supported Trout Unlimited projects would involve riverbank restoration work, and also a study of riverine insect life. The town would contribute $5,000 of services toward each of the two projects, he said.

The EPA has agreed to allow the town to pay two-thirds of the $15,000 overall fine in the form of the two environmental projects, Mr Grogins said.

Under the terms of an agreement specifying the terms of the fine, the town would not acknowledge blame for the fuel spill, Mr Grogins said.

Mr Grogins said that a recent environmental report indicated that approximately 1,600 gallons of the spilled heating fuel has been recovered, so far. The lawyer said he expects the cleanup work to continue for a number of months.

Town officials have designated up to $1.2 million in town spending for the fuel spill cleanup work. Town legal action against a firm or firms that constructed the school is anticipated as a way to recoup the cleanup costs. Haynes Construction of Seymour was the general contractor for school construction. Reed School, which houses Grade 5 and Grade 6 students, opened in January 2003.

James Belden, the vice president of the Candlewood Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, said that $5,000 of town services would be employed in a Trout Unlimited project to restore and stabilize an 80-foot-long section of eroded riverbank on the Pootatuck River, just downstream of the point where the Deep Brook joins the Pootatuck River.

That project would involve the construction of a manufactured “logjam” on the riverbank, which would be anchored in place to prevent it from dispersing, he said. The device would stabilize the riverbank and also create an aquatic habitat conducive to trout, he said. The work would be a joint effort of Trout Unlimited and the town, Mr Belden said.

The other environmental project would involve a scientific study of large aquatic insects that live along Deep Brook, including mayflies, caddis, midges, and stoneflies. In the study, Trout Unlimited would research the number of insects and types of insects that live along the brook, he said. The presence of such insects serves as an indicator of water quality, he said.

Town funds would be used toward equipment purchases, water quality testing, and the preparation of a report on the insect study, he said.

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

A heavy petroleum odor and oil sheen on Deep Brook and the Pootatuck River last December 29 triggered a fire department response, after which the fuel spill at the school was found. Reed School students were on Christmas vacation at the time.

Deep Brook is one of only eight streams in the state where wild trout reproduce naturally. The effect of the fuel spill on the stream’s aquatic life will not be known until July, when the DEP conducts its annual trout census there. The stream is a Wild Trout Management Area.