FEBRUARY
12, 2015
JACKSON, MICHIGAN
In addition
to paying roughly $65,000 in fines and cleanup costs associated with a May 2014
oil spill in the Grand River, a Jackson company is working to make sure a
similar accident doesn't happen again, state officials said.
About 800
gallons of liquid including motor oil and hydraulic fluid were cleaned from the
Grand River over the course of two days in May. The source of the spill was
later traced back to Industrial Steel Treating Co., 613 Carroll Ave.
An
investigation concluded the incident was accidental and the company did
not incur penalties from the city. The Michigan Department of Environmental
Quality wasn't as lenient.
The company
was required to pay a $5,000 fine and "improve their procedures,"
said DEQ spokesman Jeff Surfus.
"They
have strengthened their work approval requirements and inspection
schedules," he said. "In addition ... they are replacing some of the
old coolers and placing them indoors and adding spill containment around the
outdoor coolers that remain."
City
officials said their investigation found that company employees were performing
maintenance work on coolers outside their building Friday, May 16. The
employees didn't put the cooler back together properly and the oil and
hydraulic fluid leaked out.
Company
employees did not realize the oil had traveled across the sidewalk before
running into a catch basin until they heard about oil being discovered in the
Grand River.
The company
was required to pay for all of the costs associated with the cleanup efforts,
which came to about $60,000, said Todd Knepper, Jackson Department of Public
Works Director.
"It
was quite a bit more than we originally anticipated," he said.
City
officials originally estimated the cleanup costs would come to $20,000. Of course most of the time they do not know
the cost, unless and until a plume delineation is performed and/or actual
quotes are obtained from cleanup contractors.