FirstEnergy settlement is for Bayshore oil spill
2/7/2013FirstEnergy will pay a $41,667 fine and donate land and cash valued at a combined $172,938 to a conservation group to settle seven charges stemming from a small oil spill six years ago at its Bayshore power plant in Oregon, the U.S. EPA reported.
The Environmental Protection Agency determined that FirstEnergy’s equipment maintenance, spill containment planning, employee training, and containment berms surrounding a 1,000-gallon oil tank at the plant all were inadequate, thus allowing oil to overflow the containment berms when a tank valve failed Feb. 27, 2007.
The amount of the overflow was undetermined, but FirstEnergy estimated that 5 gallons of oil entered Lake Erie’s nearby waters.
The utility is to pay the fine to EPA and donate $40,000 plus 59.99 acres of ecologically valuable land along Lake Erie in North Kingsville, Ohio, to CGV, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.
The settlement is proposed to be combined with similar consent agreements stemming from two other spills at FirstEnergy plants in Cleveland and Lorain.