Soundview Transportation faces a series of penalties and payments totaling $350,000 over a November 2022 oil tanker accident in Norfolk, Connnecticut, announced state Attorney General William Tong.
In addition to the penalties, Soundview has take responsibility for the ongoing remediation and clean-up of the site, whici is expected to cost millions of dollars.
Tong said the spill was the largest gasoline spill in Connecticut history.
The settlement also addresses two smaller spills, one in Milford on March 2023 and the other at the Gateway Montville terminal on September 2023. Both of those spills have been remediated.
Tong said the Norfolk tanker accident caused “severe disruption to neighbors and significant environmental harm.”
Soundview has taken responsibility for the ongoing remediation.
In the early morning of November 5, 2022, a tanker truck leased and operated by Soundview hit a utility pole and a fire hydrant on Route 44 in Norfolk, in the vicinity of 97 Greenwoods Road East. The truck rolled over and slid several hundred feet down the road, emitting sparks and spilling gasoline through a breach in the tank. The truck’s full cargo of 8,200 gallons of gasoline spilled out, contaminating the yards of nearby residences and traveling through the town’s stormwater sewer system into nearby surface and groundwaters.
State environmental protection personnel and the Norfolk volunteer firefighters responded to the spill, ultimately with the assistance of 20 other mutual aid companies. Concern over the threat of an explosion, Norfolk declared a local state of emergency, Eversource shut off power to the area, and Aquarion was contacted to ensure adequate water pressure to supply any firefighting efforts.
The concentration of toxic and potentially explosive gasoline chemicals, including volatile organic compounds, led authorities to immediately evacuate all nearby residents – at least six residences.
The initial response to the spill, and ongoing remediation efforts, required substantial removal of contaminated material. The ground within the two nearest properties was saturated by gasoline and had to be excavated 9 feet deep, resulting in the removal of approximately 600 tons of contaminated soil. Vacuum trucks have removed approximately 90 thousand gallons of contaminated water.
In addition to responsibility for that ongoing cleanup and remediation, the settlement requires Soundview to pay $350,000 to the state, including a $100,000 civil penalty, a $200,000 payment to compensate the state for costs associated with overseeing remediation, and a $50,000 payment to the attorney general’s consumer fund to support state enforcement actions on behalf of Connecticut consumers.
Topics Energy Oil Gas Connecticut
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