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Department of Ecology News Release - Sept. 20, 2000
00-186
OLYMPIA -- The owner of Pettit Oil Co. of Hoquiam has been fined $6,000 by the Department of Ecology (Ecology) for spilling 1,700 gallons of gasoline along Highway 101 between South Bend and Naselle.
As much as 1,500 gallons of the gasoline went into the salty marshlands of Jorgenson Slough on the south fork of the Nemah River on July 2 when the driver of a twin-tank truck lost control of his vehicle and overturned.
The owner of Pettit Oil Co. blames the accident on a maintenance problem with the truck's suspension.
"To its credit, the company quickly responded to the situation and hired an environmental cleanup company," said Eric Heinitz, a spills manager for Ecology.
Some of the gasoline was recovered with absorbent pads and by a vacuum truck. Also, a construction company was hired to excavate and remove contaminated soil, Heinitz said.
Even though no fish kills were observed, gasoline is highly toxic, Heinitz said.
"Fortunately, much of it evaporates fairly quickly, but this is a very sensitive estuarine environment, and the effects were probably immediate," said Heinitz. "There may be long-lasting problems that we cannot see today."
In addition to the penalty, the owner of Pettit Oil still faces an assessment for damage caused to the environment, and also must reimburse the state's share of the cleanup costs. The environmental damage assessment could involve a monetary payment, some other form of restoration activity to make up for the damage, or a combination of both.
Pettit Oil Co.'s prior history of spill violations factored in to Ecology's penalty assessment. There have been three prior penalties, including one in 1996 for failing to quickly discover that a tank at the company's Hoquiam facility had been overfilled.
On Sept. 1, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined Pettit Oil Co. $20,000 for the July 2 incident, citing violations of the federal Clean Water Act.
The owner has 15 days to ask Ecology to lower the penalty, or 30 days to appeal it to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board. If paid, the $6,000 penalty will be sent to the state's Coastal Protection Fund, which is used for environmental restoration projects.
Contact: Sandy Howard, public information manager, 360-407-6239
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
