PITTSBURGH -- The Allegheny County (Pa.) Health Department has announced settlements with 11 gas stations that have agreed to pay $9,500 in civil penalties for failing to properly maintain air pollution control devices on their tanks and pumps.
Penalties were paid by the following stations:
Comm Plan-Prima Oil, Marshall, $2,500. Exxon Buy-N-Fly, North Versailles, $1,000. Stuckert's Exxon, Oakland, $1,000. Wayne's BP, Lawrenceville, $1,000. Sunoco A-Plus Mini Market, Pleasant Hills, $1,000. Get Go, Bloomfield, $750. BP, Monroeville, $500. Sunoco, Collier, $500. [image-nocss] Sunoco A-Plus Mini Market, Lawrenceville, $500. Sunoco, Wilkins, $500. BP, Jefferson, $250.The stations are among the 140 newest and largest in the county, which are required by the U.S. Clean Air Act to be equipped with Stage II vapor recovery systems.
The controls are designed to protect people from exposure to toxic gasoline vapors while refueling and to limit emissions that contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, which is an air pollution concern during the summer months. As an added economic benefit, the recovery and recycling of gasoline vapors saves precious and costly fuel.
The stations agreed to the settlements this year after being inspected and cited by the Health Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in late 2005.
About a dozen stations with Stage II controls are randomly inspected every year and others are checked in response to complaints from the public. Cracked or leaking hoses, defective nozzles and a pump not shutting off automatically are signs of a malfunctioning vapor recovery system.
Separately, aSouth Paris, Maine, Maine-based company with approximately 30 oil storage and distribution facilities subject to oil spill prevention requirements throughout northern New England will pay an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fine to resolve an enforcement action in which EPA alleged that the company failed to comply with these requirements at seven facilities in New Hampshire and Maine.
Under the terms of a settlement with EPA, C.N. Brown Co.which also operates 88 Big Apple convenience stores, some with gasoline, and is a supplier of heating oilwill pay a penalty of $157,500. The company has also committed to spend more than $1 million to bring its New England facilities into compliance with federal Oil Pollution Prevention regulations.
Because oil spills can do significant damage to the environment, EPA makes it a priority to ensure that facilities handling oils must follow established procedures to minimize risks of oil spills, said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England office.
An inspector from EPA's New England office inspected the seven C.N. Brown oil storage facilities with representatives of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MEDEP). The inspections revealed that, while the company did have Spill Prevention, Control & Countermeasure (SPCC) plans in place at most of the seven facilities evaluated, the plans did not adequately address all of the requirements, had not been updated to reflect actual oil storage currently in use at the facilities, and were not being fully implemented as required by the federal regulations.
All of the seven facilities lacked adequate secondary containment for some portion of each facility. Some of the facilities lacked secondary containment for bulk oil storage tanks and transfer areas. None of the loading racks at any of the facilities were provided with adequate secondary containment. Two of the New Hampshire facilities are located in drinking water protection areas.
Following the EPA's inspections and contacts with the company, C.N. Brown has been responsive to the EPA's requests to bring the seven facilities into compliance with Oil Pollution Prevention regulations. Furthermore, C.N. Brown voluntarily disclosed additional sites that are subject to the Oil Pollution Prevention regulations, at which it is taking action to improve oil spill preparedness and upgrade secondary containment structures.
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