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Pan Am indicted in '06 spill
DA: Railroad failed to report 900-gallon fuel leak in Ayer
By Jack Minch, [email protected]
Article Last Updated: 04/04/2008 11:31:10 AM EDT
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AYER -- A Middlesex Grand Jury on Tuesday indicted Pan Am Railways for two counts of covering up a spill of more than 900 gallons of diesel fuel in its rail yard in August 2006.
Pan Am's subsidiaries, the Maine Central Railroad Co., Boston & Maine Corp. and Springfield Terminal Railroad Co., were also charged with two counts each of violating the Massachusetts Oil and Hazardous Material Release Prevention and Response Act, which requires that the state Department of Environmental Protection be notified of spills or potential spills of oil or hazardous materials. Each charge carries a $100,000 fine if found guilty.
The multiple charges reflect each day the company failed to notify the DEP of the spill on Aug. 8, 2006. The accident happened in the rail yard between Depot Square and Devens, at the edge of downtown.
A locomotive idling at the rail yard spilled the fuel, but instead of reporting it within a mandatory two-hour limit, the company said nothing to state officials, according to Coakley's office.
The state Department of Environmental Protection did not learn about the spill until the following afternoon, through an anonymous telephone call. "The caller indicated that the railroad was alleging the spill was less than the reportable quantity of 10 gallons, but that workers believed the spill was significantly greater," according to a statement issued by Coakley's office. "The caller stated that the railroad appeared to be trying to hide
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the spill and avoid its detection by covering the spill area with fresh ballast."
The Ayer Fire Department, the DEP's emergency-response team and inspectors from the Federal Railroad Administration went to the rail yard late in the afternoon of Aug. 9 and eventually determined that more than 900 gallons of diesel had leaked.
The investigation showed Pan Am was well aware of the leak and its extent but failed to report the spill, Coakley's office said.
The Board of Health ruled the town's groundwater wasn't contaminated by the spill.
Pan Am did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday.
A date for an arraignment in superior court in either Cambridge or Woburn hasn't been set, said Harry Pierre, a spokesman in Attorney General Martha Coakley's office.
Board of Selectmen Chairman Gary Luca said the company should have been up front with town and state officials when the accident happened but still wants a working relationship with the company.
"They have to live within the rules and regulations that are put out by DEP and the government, and failure to do so puts them in the position where they have to go to court," Luca said.
The town has a history of friction with the railroad. Officials have long resisted Pan Am's plans to build a facility for offloading automobiles from freight trains at a site near Spectacle Pond.
Selectman Frank Maxant was pleased to hear of the indictment yesterday. "The Pan Am lawyers and management were the most completely, astonishingly arrogant people I have ever dealt with in the course of those dealings," he said of the auto-offloading issue. They were "completely unwilling to give any consideration at all to working decently with us."
DA: Railroad failed to report 900-gallon fuel leak in Ayer
By Jack Minch, [email protected]
Article Last Updated: 04/04/2008 11:31:10 AM EDT
var requestedWidth = 0;
if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; }
AYER -- A Middlesex Grand Jury on Tuesday indicted Pan Am Railways for two counts of covering up a spill of more than 900 gallons of diesel fuel in its rail yard in August 2006.
Pan Am's subsidiaries, the Maine Central Railroad Co., Boston & Maine Corp. and Springfield Terminal Railroad Co., were also charged with two counts each of violating the Massachusetts Oil and Hazardous Material Release Prevention and Response Act, which requires that the state Department of Environmental Protection be notified of spills or potential spills of oil or hazardous materials. Each charge carries a $100,000 fine if found guilty.
The multiple charges reflect each day the company failed to notify the DEP of the spill on Aug. 8, 2006. The accident happened in the rail yard between Depot Square and Devens, at the edge of downtown.
A locomotive idling at the rail yard spilled the fuel, but instead of reporting it within a mandatory two-hour limit, the company said nothing to state officials, according to Coakley's office.
The state Department of Environmental Protection did not learn about the spill until the following afternoon, through an anonymous telephone call. "The caller indicated that the railroad was alleging the spill was less than the reportable quantity of 10 gallons, but that workers believed the spill was significantly greater," according to a statement issued by Coakley's office. "The caller stated that the railroad appeared to be trying to hide
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');the spill and avoid its detection by covering the spill area with fresh ballast."
The Ayer Fire Department, the DEP's emergency-response team and inspectors from the Federal Railroad Administration went to the rail yard late in the afternoon of Aug. 9 and eventually determined that more than 900 gallons of diesel had leaked.
The investigation showed Pan Am was well aware of the leak and its extent but failed to report the spill, Coakley's office said.
The Board of Health ruled the town's groundwater wasn't contaminated by the spill.
Pan Am did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday.
A date for an arraignment in superior court in either Cambridge or Woburn hasn't been set, said Harry Pierre, a spokesman in Attorney General Martha Coakley's office.
Board of Selectmen Chairman Gary Luca said the company should have been up front with town and state officials when the accident happened but still wants a working relationship with the company.
"They have to live within the rules and regulations that are put out by DEP and the government, and failure to do so puts them in the position where they have to go to court," Luca said.
The town has a history of friction with the railroad. Officials have long resisted Pan Am's plans to build a facility for offloading automobiles from freight trains at a site near Spectacle Pond.
Selectman Frank Maxant was pleased to hear of the indictment yesterday. "The Pan Am lawyers and management were the most completely, astonishingly arrogant people I have ever dealt with in the course of those dealings," he said of the auto-offloading issue. They were "completely unwilling to give any consideration at all to working decently with us."
