EPA Criticizes Ashland Oil’s Plan for Preventing Spills as Inadequate

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday termed inadequate a required oil spill prevention and control plan prepared by Ashland Oil Inc. before its million-gallon fuel spill.

Ashland’s Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures plan, required under federal regulations, “does not adequately address spill prevention and control specific to the facility; instead, it merely paraphrases the SPCC regulations,” a memorandum filed by the EPA’s regional Philadelphia office said.

The document said the finding was based on a review of the plan and an on-site inspection of Ashland’s Floreffe Terminal near Pittsburgh.

The memorandum was given to Senate staff members at a briefing on Capitol Hill. At the meeting, the staffers were told an estimated 830,000 people will be affected by the spill, mostly due to depleted water supplies.

The collapse of an Ashland storage tank at the Floreffe Terminal on Jan. 2 sent 1 million gallons of diesel fuel spilling into the Monongahela River. The spill made its way to the Ohio River, disrupting water supplies in three states.

The leading edge of the giant oil spill moved eight miles past Sistersville, W. Va., on Friday, forcing the town to rely on fresh water supplied by barges and bottles.

Ashland’s spill prevention plan was submitted to the EPA in 1974 and periodically updated before the accident, most recently in 1985.

“The problem is that the spill containment plan appears to be more of a general plan useful at any of Ashland’s facilities,” said Janet Viniski of the EPA’s Philadelphia office. “It does not contain enough specifics.”

The EPA said a containment dike around the base of the tank that collapsed was big enough to hold all of the stored fuel, but the oil gushed out with such force that nearly 1 millions gallons lapped over the rim of the dike.