Oil Spills Costly for Three New England Companies

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.

Town Hall in Alton, New Hampshire, population approximately 4,500 (Photo courtesy Town of Alton)

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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