IMTT, Richmond CA, has agreed to pay $157,500 to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and $85,507 to the California Department of Fish and Game Office of Spill Prevention and Response related to oil spills into the Santa Fe Channel, which flows into San Francisco Bay, according to EPA information.
The spills, three that released a total of approximately 8,600 gallons of oil into the environment, occurred between June 2002 and July 2004 at the company’s oil storage and transfer facility at 100 Cutting Avenue in Richmond, EPA said.
The facility has storage capacity of more than 28 million gallons of oil in above-ground tanks.
EPA said that in addition to the spills, which are violations of the federal Clean Water Act and both California Government Code and Fish and Game Code, the company did not have adequate secondary containment to prevent oil spills as required by both state and federal laws.
The EPA discovered the violations during a September 2003 inspection. The EPA’s spill prevention regulations require non-transportation related facilities that store large amounts of oil to have a spill prevention plan that addresses the facility's design, operation, and maintenance procedures to prevent spills from occurring. Both State and federal laws also require such facilities to develop oil spill contingency plans that specify, in detail, the actions to be taken in response to any oil spill.
Improvements have been made on-site in an effort to minimize any future incidents at the facility, EPA said.