Washington State Department of Ecology

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Sept. 1, 1998

98-153

Contact: Joe Stohr, Spill Program Manager, (360) 407-7450
Curt Hart, Public Information Officer, (360) 407-6973

State transportation agency, contractor fined for asphalt spill

OLYMPIA -The state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and a private contractor are being penalized a total of $54,000 for causing approximately 715 gallons of a liquid, petroleum-based asphalt to spill into two Olympia waterways.

The state Department of Ecology (Ecology) levied a $36,000 fine against WSDOT and an $18,000 fine against its contractor, Lakeside Industries of Issaquah, for the June 9 spill.

The spill occurred while WSDOT and Lakeside were paving sections of Interstate 5 from Lacey to Tumwater. Despite weather reports indicating that rain was on the way, WSDOT and Lakeside decided to go ahead and apply the emulsified asphalt on the highway. The asphalt requires at least an hour of dry weather to set firmly.

Lakeside applied the asphalt on about 8,600 feet of I-5 before the downpour began. As the asphalt mixed with the rain, WSDOT and Lakeside employees were unable to keep contaminated runoff from entering area storm drains. Approximately 380 gallons of unset asphalt washed into Capitol Lake, an important salmon-rearing habitat, and another 335 gallons entered nearby Moxlie Creek. Both waterways discharge into Budd Inlet.

"WSDOT and Lakeside gambled with the environment when they tried to beat the rain storm - and the environment lost," said Joe Stohr, manager of Ecology's spill-prevention and response program.

"We appreciate the pressure to get the road work done, but they didn't consider preventive measures such as sealing the storm drains," Stohr said. "Some of the state officials involved in this spill had recently received prevention training stemming from an earlier WSDOT construction spill. We had hoped for a change in outlook."

Stohr said that once the asphalt entered the storm drains, WSDOT and Lakeside were not prepared to take effective cleanup actions to minimize damage to the environment, prompting Ecology to initially hire a contractor to help remove the product from the waterways.

A natural-resource damage assessment against WSDOT and Lakeside is still pending.

Ecology and WSDOT are working together to tighten environmental practices to avoid similar spills in the future. These include doing a better job checking weather forecasts, avoiding applying emulsified asphalt when weather is deteriorating, and blocking storm drains prior to applying asphalt.

In addition to the fine for the June 9 asphalt spill, Ecology handed WSDOT a $72,000 fine earlier this month for damaging fish habitat in two Bellevue streams near a construction site on State Route 520. And a resource-damage assessment will be levied soon for a road project last winter that damaged salmon habitat in the north fork of the Nooksack River.

Damage to creeks, rivers and lakes caused by road construction projects is an especially troublesome problem because Puget Sound Chinook salmon may be listed as endangered species next year. In fact, erosion from all kinds of construction sites is increasingly common in the Puget Sound region as contractors work year-round to build new office buildings, streets, stores and homes.