U.S. Grand Jury Indicts Ashland in River Oil Spill
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Ashland Oil Inc. on charges that it violated federal environmental laws when more than 700,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Monongahela River in January, fouling drinking water in three states.
The indictment charged Ashland with one count of violating the Clean Water Act by “negligently discharging pollutants into the Monongahela without a permit” and a second count of violating the federal Refuse Act “by illegally discharging refuse matter, including oil, into the river without a permit.”
Environmental laws do not contain felony provisions in such cases, so the misdemeanor charges were the most stringent allowed, U.S. Atty. J. Alan Johnson said.
Each of the two counts carries a maximum penalty of $200,000 and “twice the monetary loss from the effect of oil being in the river,” Johnson added.
The spill occurred Jan. 2, when an Ashland Oil storage tank in Jefferson, near Pittsburgh, collapsed as it was filled with 3.8 million gallons of oil.
In May, investigators for the Battelle Memorial Institute said a dime-size flaw in the tank’s brittle steel walls caused the collapse.
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