Fuel Spilled Intentionally, Police Say

Diesel fuel -- police say as much as 1,200 gallons -- was intentionally released Sunday in a produce company parking lot and quickly made its way into the Black River.

http://www.vnews.com/08102010/6913769.htm                                      # # # #  Published 8/10/2010  •  Fuel Spilled Intentionally, Police Say  •  An Estimated 1,200 Gallons Of Diesel Sullies Black River  •  By Susan J. Boutwell Valley News Staff Writer  •  North Springfield, Vt. -- Diesel fuel -- police say as much as 1,200 gallons -- was intentionally released Sunday in a produce company parking lot and quickly made its way into the Black River.  •  State environmental officials and employees from a private clean-up company were setting up containment booms in the Black River yesterday, and also trying to skim the fuel from the surface of the water and collect it with absorbent material.  •  “This level of release is rare,” said Gary Kessler, Compliance and Enforcement Division director for Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. Kessler said yesterday odor from the spill was “noticeable from many, many miles down the river.”  •  Investigators don't know who leaked the diesel from a fuel pump at Black River Produce Co., on River Street, the company uses for its delivery trucks, said Anthony Leonard, a Springfield police officer.  •  Kessler said there hasn't been a spill of this magnitude since a heating oil truck tipped over near the Dog River in Northfield, Vt., in 2003. In that accident, 3,800 gallons of fuel oil was released. Between 420 and 1,010 gallons was not recovered and a significant amount of that contaminated a brook that flows into the Dog River, according to a state review of that accident.  •  Springfield police believe about 1,200 gallons spilled here on Sunday. But Kessler said environmental officials are still trying to determine the amount. The underground tank that stores the diesel fuel has a capacity of 9,000 gallons.  •  Several messages left yesterday for Steve Birge, an owner of Black River Produce, were not returned.  •  Cleanup of the spill will “easily” run into tens of thousands of dollars, Kessler said.  •  But, he said environmental officials aren't worried about who will pay the cleanup costs.  •  “We're going to clean up first then figure out who's responsible second,” said Kessler.  •  As of late yesterday afternoon, there were no reports of dead fish or waterfowl as a result of the spill, he said.  •  Leonard said a pair of men out walking before 8 a.m. Sunday noticed the fuel spill, stopped the flow from the fuel pump and called police.  •  Police determined from the condition of the pump that someone had intentionally released the fuel, but Leonard declined to provide details.  •  “Because of the ongoing investigation, we can't get into too many of the details of what we encountered up there,” he said.  •  Leonard said police theorize the pump sprayed fuel for an hour or more on the Black River Produce property. He said fuel ran through the company's parking lot, into a storm drain and from there into the Black River across the street.  •  Springfield fire and police were dispatched early Sunday morning, along with state environmental officials.  •  “The efforts to clean it were quite quick,” said Kessler.  •  Leonard said workers from ECS, an environmental consulting company based Agawam, Mass., were also at the river site yesterday. ECS has an office in Brattleboro, Vt.  • Springfield police are asking anyone who may have seen or heard anything at the produce company between 5 and 8 a.m. Sunday to contact the department at (802) 885-2113.  •  Leonard said the incident could bring a felony charge of unlawful mischief, punishable by two or more years in prison and a fine.