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Office and Maintenance Shop Facility Fined for Violating the Clean Water Act

Release Date: 08/27/2009
Contact Information: Dave Bary at 214-665-2200 or [email protected]

(Dallas, Texas – August 27, 2009) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined Kass Bros. Office & Maintenance Shop Facility $1,950 for violating federal Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations outlined under the Clean Water Act. A federal inspection of a bulk storage facility owned by Kass Bros., Inc., and located at 1101 Destrahan Avenue, Harvey, Louisiana, on May 21, 2009, revealed the facility’s SPCC plan had inadequate or no information and procedures for reporting a discharge and inadequate or no prediction of equipment failure which could result in discharges. Inspections and tests required by federal regulations did not follow written procedures developed for the facility, were not kept with the SPCC plan and were not maintained for three years which is also required by federal regulations. Personnel working at the site had no training on the operation and maintenance of equipment to prevent discharges, no training on discharge procedure protocols, and no training on applicable pollution control laws, rules and regulations. The inspection also found spill prevention briefings were not scheduled and conducted periodically, the SPCC plan had inadequate or no discussion of site security, secondary containment was inadequate for mobile or portable storage tanks, and was inadequate or did not discuss facility transfer operations, pumping and facility processes. As part of an Expedited Settlement Agreement with EPA, the facility has provided certification that all identified deficiencies have been corrected.

SPCC regulations require onshore oil production or bulk storage facilities to provide oil spill prevention, preparedness and response to prevent oil discharges. The SPCC program helps protect our nation’s water quality. A spill of only one gallon of oil can contaminate one million gallons of water.

Additional information on SPCC regulations is available at https://www.epa.gov/oilspill

More about activities in EPA Region 6: https://www.epa.gov/region6

EPA audio file is available at https://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/aug2009.html