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Department of Ecology News Release - August 8, 2001
01-135
OLYMPIA - Tacoma-based Associated Petroleum Products, Inc. has been fined $47,000 by the state Ecology Department for spilling nearly 500 gallons of fuel oil near Eatonville.
An estimated 200 gallons of the spill went into a tributary of Lynch Creek. Some of the oil also may have reached Lynch Creek by way of the tributary, but according to Doug Stolz, a spill responder for Ecology, "That evidence had washed away by the time we arrived because the company took so long to notify us."
Although fuel oil is toxic to aquatic life, no dead fish were observed.
The spill occurred Jan. 25 when one of the company's delivery trucks over-filled a storage tank at its fueling depot in Eatonville. Among other things, the depot stores heating oil that is distributed to homes.
"Our investigation found a string of negligence that led to the spill," Stolz said.
The first of the mistakes occurred when the Eatonville facility called its dispatch center to reduce the volume of the initial order from 10,000 to 9,000 gallons, because the tank to be filled was too full to hold a whole load. That crucial change was made to the wrong order, a similar load going to Enumclaw rather than Eatonville, Stolz said.
Additional errors followed. The driver failed to notice handwritten changes about the expected delivery volume that were made to back-up paperwork at the facility. He also was slow to notice that fuel was spilling when the tank was overfilled.
In addition, a valve was left open, allowing fuel to leave a containment area on the site, which also went unnoticed. And lastly, the company failed to immediately report the spill, as required by state law. That failure prevented a timely cleanup effort.
Ecology learned about the incident from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which had been notified by the local fire and police staff.
A cleanup contractor helped recover the oil using absorbent pads, dams, pumping and vacuuming. Some of the oil was put into barrels so it could be removed from the site, but most of it was removed with the pads, Stolz said.
"This kind of oil breaks up over time. Some of it dissolved and washed downstream, but we'll never know how much," Stolz added.
"This was our first major incident in 30 years. Since the spill, we have taken additional measures to prevent this from ever happening again," said Luke Xitco, the companys general manager. "We admit we made mistakes, particularly in failing to notify the Department of Ecology in time, but we made all possible efforts to contain and clean up the spill, and hired a professional cleanup firm for recovering the oil from the tributary."
Associated Petroleum may file an application for relief from the penalty with Ecology within 15 days, or may file an appeal within 30 days with the state Pollution Control Hearings Board.
Contact: Sandy Howard, public information officer, 360-407-6239
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
