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Owens Corning to Pay Fine for Clean Water Act Violations; Company Will Pay $40,000 in Penalties and Fix Deficiencies in Oil Spill Controls

Release Date: 06/06/2001
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(01065) New York, New York -- Owens Corning has agreed to make necessary improvements to its spill response capabilities and to pay a $40,000 penalty in response to an EPA complaint citing the company for violations of the spill prevention and response provisions of the Clean Water Act. According to the complaint, Owens Corning's asphalt plant in Kearny, New Jersey, which has an oil storage capacity of 9 million gallons, did not properly develop and implement a Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) plan or a Facility Response Plan (FRP) for its facility. "It's important that facilities that have the potential for spills, like this Owens Corning asphalt plant, first take every step possible to prevent them," said William J. Muszynski, P.E., Acting EPA Regional Administrator. "Unfortunately, accidents can happen, so it is equally important that a facility knows how to minimize environmental damages when they do. That is why spill prevention plans are so crucial." The SPCC provisions of the Clean Water Act are designed to prevent oil spills or leaks into navigable waters from facilities and contain them once they occur. Any facility with an above-ground storage tank of more than 660 gallons, an aboveground storage capacity of more than 1320 gallons total in multiple containers, or a total underground storage capacity of more than 42,000 gallons is required to prepare, implement and regularly review SPCC plans. The plans ensure that measures are taken to prevent leaks and spills. For example, facilities are required to have secondary containment, usually a cement wall surrounding a storage tank that will capture any oil released from the tank. In addition, facilities use the FRPs to help respond quickly to any spills that do occur, and to ensure that resources to clean up oil spills are available. In this case, Owens-Corning did not have an adequate FRP or SPCC plan, and had not fully implemented either plan. The facility also failed to maintain a copy of the SPCC Plan at the facility, failed to amend the SPCC plan when necessary, and failed to report oil spills to the EPA. EPA conducts regular inspections throughout the region to assess facilities' compliance with these requirements.