Spill Incident Rattles Produce Firm

The deliberate spilling of diesel fuel over the weekend at a fruit and vegetable wholesale plant has shocked the company's owner, who is fearful of further vandalism at his business.

http://www.vnews.com/08112010/6916466.htm                                             # # # # Published 8/11/2010  •  Incident Rattles Produce Firm  •  Diesel Fuel Cleanup Continues; Spill Estimate Much Higher  •  By Susan J. Boutwell Valley News Staff Writer  •  North Springfield, Vt. -- The deliberate spilling of diesel fuel over the weekend at a fruit and vegetable wholesale plant has shocked the company's owner, who is fearful of further vandalism at his business.  •  “This is a horrific event,” said Steve Birge, who in 1978 started Black River Produce Co., delivering vegetables with a friend in a Volkswagen bus. “I'm having a hard time just coming to grips with it.”  •  The fuel flowed Sunday morning through a storm drain on the company's parking lot and into the Black River.  •  Yesterday, environmental cleanup crews worked two miles downstream from Black River Produce headquarters, skimming fuel about five miles upstream from the Connecticut River.  •  Also yesterday, environmental officials got a better sense of the amount of fuel released, nearly quadrupling the initial figure. Preliminary estimates pegged the amount at about 1,200 gallons, but the total has been upped to between 4,000 and 4,400 gallons, said Gary Kessler, Compliance and Enforcement Division director for Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.  •  About 2,200 gallons of fuel have been recovered so far, Kessler said.  •  In addition, one duck was found yesterday with fuel on its feathers and was taken to a veterinarian. No dead fish or animals have been found. And no tainted water has reached the Connecticut, Kessler said.  •  Birge said he talked yesterday with the company's 150 employees about wanting to make them feel safe.  •  “We want to be able to somehow put this behind us and know we're not going to be the target of something like this in the future,” he said.  •  Springfield Police continue to investigate who released the truck fuel from a pump at the produce company sometime before 8 a.m. Sunday morning. A pair of walkers noticed the smell, found the fuel pump running and shut it off before calling police. The investigating officer couldn't be reached yesterday.  •  Birge said he turned over parking lot surveillance tapes to police. He also said the business has beefed up security, though he declined to go into specifics.  •  The owner said he couldn't think of any former employee who left the company on bad terms.  •  “We're very proud we don't have a lot of turnover,” Birge said. “Even the people that didn't work out, we tried to (make sure they) leave on the best terms possible.”  •  Police and fire officials, state emergency management and environmental workers and a clean-up company crew converged on the scene Sunday, setting up booms in the river to hold back the fuel.  •  By yesterday, thousands of gallons of fuel, which floats, had been skimmed from the top of the river, said Tom Wrigley, site supervisor for ECS, an environmental consulting company based in Agawam, Mass., with offices in Brattleboro, Vt.  •  Booms stretched 120 feet across the river near the Route 11 bridge, just past the Springfield Shopping Plaza. A rigid boom was set up first and then lined with absorbent booms to soak up the fuel, Wrigley said.  •  Wrigley said fish were active near the booms, safely beneath the sheen on top of the water.  •  The worst damage from the spill would take place along the banks of the river, said David Deen, river steward for Vermont and New Hampshire for the Connecticut River Watershed Council, based in Greenfield, Mass.  •  Deen, who works out of an office south of Springfield in Saxtons River, Vt., said “it's the shore that's the real problem.”  •  “You're not going to see small-mouth bass turn belly up because of this,” he said.  •  If the fuel gets onto rocks, sand and gravel on the banks of the river, it may be ingested by otter, mink and raccoon as well as aquatic life, such as crayfish and insects.  •  “It's going to make them sick. Imagine you chewing on a tar ball,” he said. “If they get it internally, it's like anybody drinking gasoline. It's not going to be good for you, you may not die, but you’re not going to feel good for some time.”  •  Wrigley said his workers hadn't seen any dead animals near the river. He said company employees will maintain the boom over the next few weeks and keep an eye on the riverbanks. If they see fuel washing up on the riverbanks, they'll wash the shoreline, he said.  •  Yesterday, workers from another company hired by ECS brought in a vacuum truck to suck the fuel off the top of the river, said Wrigley.  •  The Black River originates in Ludlow, Vt., flowing out of a series of lakes -- Lake Rescue, Amherst Lake and Echo Lake -- then south through Ludlow, Cavendish, Weathersfield and into Springfield.  •  One section of the river, in Cavendish and Weathersfield, is ranked as a “trophy trout” stretch, Deen said, where rainbow and brown trout up to 3 pounds are routinely snagged.  •  Whoever spilled the fuel on Sunday was likely watching the Black River plant, said Birge. The business is always open, with trucks coming and going seven days a week, making it difficult for someone to sneak on the property unnoticed.  •  “Nothing like this has ever happened before,” he said. “… But there's someone out their that doesn't like us.”  •  Photo: Contractors Dan Tyler and Kevin Leming Jr. move booms to contain diesel fuel in the Black River in Springfield yesterday afternoon. Authorities say someone intentionally caused thousands of gallons to flow into the river over the weekend. (Valley News — Jennifer Hauck)  •  http://www.vnews.com/tempgraphics/201008010-spill-jh-042.jpg