Officials: Cost to clean oiled Santa Barbara beaches exceeds $60 million

Cleaning up the thousands of gallons of crude oil that fouled Refugio State Beach on May 19 has cost more than $60 million, officials said Wednesday, and the figure is expected to grow as the cleanup continues.

Cleanup costs hit a peak of about $3 million per day after a ruptured pipe spilled up to 101,000 gallons of oil along the Gaviota coast in Santa Barbara County last month, said Meredith Mathews, a spokeswoman for Plains All American Pipeline, which operates the broken pipeline.

The company is paying to deploy more than 1,000 workers, skimming boats, ecological monitors and other resources along a 96.5-mile stretch of coast from Gaviota to Point Mugu near Oxnard.

State and federal agencies responding to the spill will bill the company for their costs.

Workers have cleaned up 76% of the damaged stretch of beach, mostly sandy areas that had only trace amounts of oil, officials said.

On Wednesday, workers at Refugio State Beach tediously placed oiled rocks on large sheets of plastic, scraping the oil off with putty knives and wire brushes.

The cleanup effort is now focused on cleaning soil, boulders and bedrock that were stained when up to 21,000 gallons of thick crude made its way from where the pipe ruptured down a storm culvert and into the Pacific, said Eric Hjelstrom, state parks superintendent for the Santa Barbara area.

PADEP Assesses $8.9 million Civil Penalty against Range Resources for Failure to Repair Leaking Gas Well

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

06/16/2015

CONTACT:

Julie Lalo, DEP

717-787-1323

 

PADEP Assesses $8.9 million Civil Penalty against Range Resources for Failure to Repair Leaking Gas Well

HARRISBURG, PA -- The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has notified Range Resources-Appalachia, LLC, of Fort Worth, TX that it intends to assess an $8.9 million civil penalty against the company, and has directed Range Resources to prevent methane and other substances from escaping from a leaking gas well and polluting groundwater and a stream in Lycoming County.

On May 11, 2015, DEP ordered Range Resources to submit a plan to remediate the defectively cemented gas well. However, the company failed to submit a satisfactory plan that made necessary repairs to prevent further leaks and pollution.

“Today, we made it clear that we take seriously our responsibility to protect residents and Pennsylvania’s natural resources,” said DEP Secretary John Quigley. “Clean water is an important part of a strong economy and Range Resources owes it to the people of Lycoming County and surrounding areas to make the repairs necessary to immediately stop the discharge of natural gas to the waters.”

The $8.9 million civil penalty would be assessed under the Clean Streams Law and the 2012 Oil and Gas Act.

Drilling for the well took place in February and March of 2011, and fracking occurred in June 2011. Subsequent investigation revealed that methane contaminated the groundwater-fed wells of private water supplies, and a nearby stream.

Although Range Resources was issued a Notice of Violation in September 2013 for the leaking gas well, it still has not corrected the defective cement. Since that time, the private wells, a pond, and nearby streams have continued to show signs of gas migration, including increased turbidity, and the presence of iron, aluminum and manganese. 

Elsewhere in the area near the leaking well, foliage “dead spots” and gas escaping from the soil have been observed by DEP.

DEP’s May 11, 2015 order cited Range Resources for not correcting the defective well, and ordered the company to submit and implement a plan to prevent the migration of gas or other fluids. Calling the continued gas migration “unlawful conduct and a public nuisance,” DEP gave Range Resources ten days to submit a remediation plan.

Range Resources submitted a plan that proposed putting the well into production as a means to resolve the gas migration. DEP rejected that plan because it did not include making necessary repairs and has now directed the company to remediate the well in a manner that immediately ceases the discharge of methane to ground and surface water. 

“Range Resources has the responsibility to eliminate the gas migration that this poorly constructed well is causing,” said Quigley. “Refusing to make the necessary repairs to protect the public and the environment is not an option.”
Range Resources has appealed the May 11 order to Pennsylvania’s Environmental Hearing Board.

Philip Joseph Rivkin, a.k.a. Felipe Poitan Arriaga, A Biodiesel Fuel Company Owner Pleads Guilty to Fraud and Clean Air Act Crimes Connected to Renewable Fuels Scheme

Philip J. Rivkin faces more than 10 years imprisonment and $51 million in restitution

WASHINGTON – Philip Joseph Rivkin, a.k.a. Felipe Poitan Arriaga, 50, today pleaded guilty to a Clean Air Act false statement and mail fraud as part of his role in a scheme to defraud EPA by falsely representing that he was producing millions of gallons of biodiesel fuel. According to the terms of the plea agreement, Rivkin faces more than 10 years in prison and will be responsible for $51 million in restitution to help reimburse victims.

“These crimes are a serious threat to an important program that helps combat climate change,” said Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “For undermining the Renewable Fuels Standard, Mr. Rivkin will pay substantial fines and restitution, and he also faces significant prison time. Companies and individual managers should get the message that there are serious consequences for breaking the rules and undermining the integrity of this program.”

In the plea agreement, Rivkin admitted that from July 2010 to July 2011, he devised the biodiesel fraud scheme as his business operation falsely generated renewable fuel credits, known as renewable identification numbers (RINs), and sold them to oil companies and brokers for more than $29 million. 
On April 30, 2012, EPA issued Green Diesel, LLC a Notice of Violation (NOV).  The NOV alleged the company generated more than 60 million invalid biomass-based diesel RINs without producing any qualifying renewable fuel, and transferred the majority of these invalid RINs to others. On June 18, 2014, two U.S. Secret Service Agents arrested Rivkin in Houston after he was expelled from Guatemala, which had expelled him for having fraudulently secured Guatemalan citizenship.

The next day, a 68-count indictment was returned against Rivkin for charges including Clean Air Act false statements, wire fraud, mail fraud, and for engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity. The indictment included a notice of forfeiture to include: cash in excess of $29 million; three vehicles including a Lamborghini, Maserati, and a Bentley; a Canadair LTD airplane; and millions of dollars worth of artwork that was previously seized from Rivkin in 2012 and was included in a civil action for forfeiture.

The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set annual volume targets for four categories of biofuels to ensure that transportation fuel sold in the United States contains a minimum volume of renewable fuel. By displacing fossil fuels, biofuels help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help strengthen energy security.

This case was investigated by U.S. EPA-Criminal Investigation Division, U.S. Secret Service, IRS-Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the Houston Area Fraud Task Force, Houston Ship Channel Initiative and Texas Environmental Crimes Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Leslie Lehnert, Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice-Environmental Crimes Section, with assistance from J.T. Morgan, Attorney, U.S. EPA-Legal Counsel Division.

More information about EPA’s criminal enforcement program:
http://epa.gov/enforcement/criminal/index.html

More information about RFS enforcement:
http://www.epa.gov/enforcement/air/renewable-fuels/fuel-novs.html

Lightning may have caused Jessamine Co. fire in Kentucky

June 16, 2015

JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT)

A lightning strike is now being blamed for sparking a large house fire Tuesday afternoon in Jessamine County.

It happened at a home on Golf Club Drive near Golf Club of the Bluegrass off U.S. 68 in the Harrods Ridge neighborhood.

Nicholasville Fire Dept. Battalion Chief David Johns told WKYT's Garrett Wymer that he believes lightning struck the home, starting a fire in the attic that firefighters said spread quickly.

"An attic is an open area with plenty of fuel," Johns said. "So it doesn't take too many minutes for that to get going. And a lightning strike is obviously a very powerful force that creates a lot of heat."

Johns said the homeowners reported seeing sparks come out of the outlets when the house was hit.

Four people were inside the home at the time of the fire, firefighters said. All of them were able to get out safely. 

Neighbors in the area described seeing flames shooting high into the air when the fire first started.

"First you could barely see the house, there was so much smoke," said Alexis Downs, who saw the fire from across the street. "Then once the smoke sort of cleared you just saw all these flames.

"You could feel the heat. That's how big the fire was and that's how close we were to it," Downs said.

Fire departments from Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Wilmore and Fayette County all responded to the scene. 

The official cause is under investigation, even though firefighters do believe a lightning strike first sparked the fire, Johns said.

WKYT Chief Meteorologist Chris Bailey says there was a strong storm with a tremendous amount of lightning in the area at the time.

Fire crews remained on the scene after the fire was out to keep the flames and hot spots under control.

1 CIVILIAN WORKER KILLED WHEN A TELESCOPIC LIFT OVERTURNED AT THE AT BOONE NATIONAL GUARD CENTER IN KENTUCKY

JUNE 16, 2015

LEXINGTON, KY. (WTVQ)

According to Kentucky National Guard, a civilian contractor was killed and another injured when a snorkel boom lift overturned this morning, at Boone National Guard Center. 

According to Franklin County Coroner’s Office, 23 year-old Brandon S. Cloud and a coworker were operating a telescoping lift to install siding on an aircraft hangar, when the lift overturned. 

Cloud was pronounced deceased by the Coroner's office, and the National Guard says the injured coworker was airlifted to UK medical center in Lexington, in critical condition.

The investigation is still ongoing, authorities say, and an autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.