A Virginia company has received a $3.1 million penalty from an administrative law judge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for not taking required measures to detect and prevent leaks from underground storage tanks at 23 gas stations in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, the EPA announced Wednesday.
The announcement comes a day after a Pennsylvania company entered a consent agreement with the EPA and agreed to pay a $284,156 civil penalty for similar alleged violations.
In the latest case - the largest penalty ever assessed by an EPA administrative law judge for violations of any federal environmental statute - the judge determined Euclid of Virginia Inc. failed to maintain required leak-detection and control equipment, and to perform required leak-detection activities for 72 underground storage tanks at 23 gas stations.
"With millions of gallons of gasoline, oil, and other petroleum products stored in underground tanks, leaving them unchecked can cause major soil and groundwater contamination," said Donald S. Welsh, regional administrator of EPA's mid-Atlantic region. "We have invested extensive resources to ensure that underground storage tank owners comply with leak detection and prevention requirements."
The judge found that, for certain facilities, Euclid failed to comply with corrosion- prevention standards, install or maintain equipment to prevent releases of gasoline due to the overfilling of tanks or other spills when tanks are being filled. Finally, the judge ruled that Euclid did not maintain required financial assurances to respond and clean up potential fuel leaks or spills for its facilities in the District of Columbia.
The size of the penalty was due in part to the number of facilities and storage tanks and the extended period of violations. In addition, the penalty was justified by what the judge referred to as Euclid=s "high degree of negligence" in allowing violations to continue despite numerous warnings.
On Nov. 14, the EPA announced it had entered a consent agreement with Carroll Independent Fuel Co., which agreed to pay a $284,156 civil penalty and complete a special environmental project to settle an EPA complaint involving underground storage tanks at 32 of its facilities in Maryland.
EPA cited Carroll for a variety of underground storage tank violations, including failure to perform release detection, failure to test the operation of the line leak detectors annually, failure to meet the new UST system performance standards for spill and overfill prevention, failure to provide corrosion protection on the metal piping, failure to investigate a suspected release, failure to report a suspected release, and failure to perform lint tightness testing.
As part of the settlement, Carroll Independent Fuel Co. has neither admitted nor denied liability for these violations. Carroll has also agreed to implement a $447,000 supplemental environmental project, to be determined, that is intended to secure significant environmental or public health protections.
For more on EPA's underground storage tank program, including compliance assistance information, visit the EPA Web site
