Costly Oil Spills for New England Companies

Costly Oil Spills for New England Companies



January 2008  - Three New England 
companies will pay penalties to resolve allegations that they violated 
federal oil storage regulations. The companies have operations in all six 
New England states, and two own and operate multiple oil storage 
facilities. 
Rice Oil Co. of Greenfield, Massachusetts; Irving Oil Co., a Canadian 
company with U.S. operations based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and 
Mantrose-Haeuser Co., an Attleboro, Massachusetts shellac coatings 
facility, all were fined today. 
"Oil spills can do significant damage to the environment, so it is 
important to take steps to prevent them from occurring," Robert Varney, 
regional administrator of EPA's New England Office said today. "Facilities 
that store and distribute oil have a responsibility to carefully follow 
established procedures to minimize risks of oil spills." 
Rice Oil Co. of Greenfield, Massachusetts will pay a $157,500 penalty for 
alleged violations at four of its Massachusetts oil storage and 
distribution facilities and at a Readsboro, Vermont facility, where two 
oil spills occurred in 2003 and 2007. 
The company is affiliated with 40 gas stations and convenience stores 
throughout New England. 
Rice Oil spilled 300 gallons of fuel oil into the Deerfield River from the 
Readsboro facility in October 2003. At the time, Rice Oil paid a $15,000 
penalty to the EPA and agreed to upgrade the oil storage and distribution 
systems at Readsboro, as well as its Massachusetts bulk plants. 
But in 2006 when state and federal officials inspected three Rice Oil 
facilities in Massachusetts and the Vermont facility they found that the 
company had failed to upgrade its equipment as agreed. 
Then on July 4, 2007, Rice Oil reported a 400 gallon oil spill from its 
Vermont facility. State emergency personnel found that some of the oil 
escaped the earthen berm surrounding the tanks, but no impact to the 
Deerfield River was observed. 
Irving Oil Co. will pay a $55,000 penalty for alleged violations at one of 
its facilities located in a drinking water protection area in Alton, New 
Hampshire. 

In addition to the Alton facility, Irving owns and operates 12 bulk oil 
storage facilities in New England, three of which are marine terminals 
with a combined storage capacity of over 100 million gallons. 
Inspectors from EPA's New England office and the New Hampshire Department 
of Environmental Services found that the company had failed to construct 
impervious secondary containment around its aboveground storage tanks at 
the Alton bulk plant. Six bulk petroleum storage tanks contain a total of 
more than 100,000 gallons. 
The Irving Oil facility also stores gasoline on a site located close to 
the Town of Alton's drinking water supply. This sensitive location means 
that spills at the bulk plant could lead to contamination of a public 
drinking water aquifer. 
In November 2005, Irving's Alton facility spilled over 5,000 gallons of 
No. 2 home heating oil, which impacted the groundwater beneath the tank 
farm. 
Mantrose-Haeuser Co. Inc., an Attleboro, Massachusetts shellac-based 
coatings facility, will pay $34,000 following a 2006 EPA inspection that 
found the company to be in violation of federal Clean Water Act 
regulations for two spills into the Ten Mile River - one of sulfuric acid 
and the other of diesel fuel. 
EPA inspectors noted heavy oil staining and evidence of prior spills 
throughout the delivery truck unloading area, directly adjacent to the 
river. 
The EPA continues to focus on oil spill prevention in New England. In 
2007, Varney says EPA personnel conducted inspections at over 100 
facilities in the region to determine their compliance with the Oil 
Pollution Prevention regulations. 

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