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Department of Ecology News Release - May 3, 2010
10-095
BELLINGHAM – The Washington Department of Ecology has fined Seattle City Light $11,000 after 150 gallons of transformer oil spilled to Diablo Lake from the Ross Dam powerhouse in 2008.
The penalty also cites the utility for failing to promptly report the spill as required by Washington law.
On June 19 and 20, 2008, insulating oil leaked through a broken transformer cooling tube, allowing it to mix with cooling water that discharges to Diablo Lake. The lake is in the Ross Lake National Recreation Area, which is part of the North Cascades National Park complex.
City Light first reported the June 19 spill more than five hours after it was discovered. The utility took almost 12 hours to contact Ecology on June 20, after a powerhouse control room alarm alerted staff to low oil in the affected transformer that was found to be the source of the spill.
The transformer oil contained low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, chemical compounds that were used in electrical equipment for their insulating and cooling properties. The United States stopped allowing the manufacture of PCBs in 1979 because they were shown to build up in the environment and animal tissue and cause cancer, among other health effects.
City Light hired a spill-response contractor to contain and clean up the oil.
Oil continued to form a patchy sheen on the lake’s surface for several weeks. City Light and the park issued a mid-July warning to boaters to avoid oily areas, and provided supplies at boat ramps to wash boats and equipment that came in contact with oil. Cleanup operations concluded on July 31, 2008.
“Effective oil spill response depends on prompt and open communication by the responsible party,” said Dale Jensen, who manages Ecology’s Spill Prevention, Preparedness and Response Program. “Valuable hours were lost on the first two days that were especially significant given the time and distance needed by Ecology and the response contractor to respond. I appreciate Seattle City Light’s development of their internal notification policy to ensure a faster and better-coordinated response with Ecology. However, spill prevention needs to be a top priority.”
“We take matters of this nature very seriously,” said Lynn Best, director of Environmental Affairs at Seattle City Light. “We responded promptly as soon as we detected the sheen and were able to identify its source. We partnered immediately with the National Park Service to minimize any potential contact by the public and to protect the health and safety of the environment. We also made structural changes that will prevent future spills.”
Since this oil spill, City Light has informed Ecology that the utility has upgraded transformer cooling systems at the Ross Dam powerhouse and other facilities to prevent spills.
Ecology also billed City Light $3,540 to recover the state’s costs for responding to the spill and overseeing the cleanup.
In a separate action, Ecology – acting on behalf of other state natural resource agencies – issued a $2,722 assessment for damage caused by the spill to the public’s environmental resources. The assessment is based on the amount spilled and the resources it placed at risk. The utility paid the assessment July 13, 2009.
City Light may request Ecology reconsideration of the penalty or file an appeal to the Washington State Pollution Control Hearings Board within 30 days.
Ecology’s Spills program is critical to reducing toxic threats and restoring Puget Sound.
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Media Contacts: Katie J. Skipper, Ecology media relations, 360-715-5205; 360-510-0682 cell; katie.skipper@ecy.wa.gov
For more information: www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/spills/spills.html
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
