Crying Over Spilled Diesel

Plan Ahead to Limit
Costs and Liability

By Richard Stewart

Who's to blame when a drunk driver crosses the center line and forces
your truck into a ditch, puncturing a saddle tank and causing a spill of 50
gallons of diesel fuel? Not you, right? Right. But you are not off the hook.
As the spill generator, the liability for the spill is all yours. That means you
must follow applicable reporting and cleanup requirements or face the
consequences — which can be very costly.
     What can you do to limit the costs and liability associated with a spill?
Take some advice from the Spill Center, an environmental claims
management company that handles spills of diesel fuel and hazardous
materials nationwide on a daily basis. The company maintains up-to-date
listings of local, state and federal spill reporting requirements and contacts.
     According to Tom Moses, Spill Center president, 88% of all spills
processed by his organization involve diesel fuel from ruptured saddle
tanks and broken crossover lines. The average amount of fuel spilled
in a saddle tank release is 104 gallons. The average cost to clean that
up nationwide is $9,200, reports Moses, an environmental attorney and
former toxicologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
     The Spill Center develops customized spill contingency plans for
subscribers, which include private fleets, for-hire carriers, truck leasing
companies and chemical and insurance companies. Staffed by legal,
technical and environmental specialists, the Spill Center handles
regulatory reporting, coordinates spill cleanup efforts and documents
compliance activities related to spills. A single toll-free phone call
activates a subscriber's contingency plan when a spill occurs, notes
Moses, and the Spill Center staff springs into action.

Be Prepared for a Spill
The Spill Center offers some tips for owner-operators than can help
limit the costs and liability of a spill. "It is important to be prepared for
a spill before it happens," says Moses. "That means having a way to
stop the leak and contain the spilled fuel, even if you just dig a ditch
with a shovel." He encourages every driver to carry a spill kit to
minimize damages.
     A number of manufacturers offer stock and custom kits, he notes.
Diesel kits include sorbent pads and booms to soak up fuel. They also
contain putty and plugs of different sizes to stop leaks. One
manufacturer makes an instant-open container resembling an inflatable
swimming pool that can hold the contents of two 100-gallon fuel tanks,
Moses adds.
     "The second part of being prepared is knowing that you owe
reports on the spill, which can get confusing," he says. "There is the
potential for multiple jurisdictions with separate reporting requirements."
A spill in one of the five boroughs of New York City requires that
reports be made to county, state and federal authorities. "In addition
to those, you also have to report the spill to the NYC Department of
Environmental Protection. If you fail to make the city report, it can
cost you $25,000 a day, with each day being a separate violation."
     Environmental authorities take their reporting requirements very
seriously. One private fleet was fined $75,000 by the N.J. Dept. of
Environmental Protection after a routine diesel fuel spill of 30 gallons,
Moses relates. The truck swerved to avoid hitting a car and scraped
a saddle tank against a guard rail, puncturing the tank.
     The driver, equipped with a spill kit, stopped the flow from the
tank, and the company filed a full accident report with the N.J. State
Police. But the fine came from the failure to comply with the state's
environmental reporting requirement. The police had not mentioned
the requirement; and the company thought it had done everything
required of it. In this case, ignorance was anything but bliss.
 
Have a Contingency Plan
Whether you are leased to a company or running under your own
operating authority, you should have a contingency plan that lays out
all the steps to take in the event of a spill, Moses advises. "Acquaint
yourself with the reporting requirements and procedures of each
state and locality that you run through and the federal regulations that
apply to environmental releases."
     The contingency plan should list all the hazardous materials,
including cargo, fuel and other truck fluids that have the potential to
require an emergency response. It should also list the phone numbers
of the regulatory agencies, as well as cleanup and disposal services
that may be needed. Drivers should also be familiar with the kind of
information to report, he advises.
     "Always inform the regulatory authorities about the proximity
of a waterway, storm sewer or drain. One of the easiest ways to get
tricked into a reporting violation is when fuel enters a conveyance
or swale or ditch that's dry -- and later it rains," he observes. "Count
dry ditches as waterways, storm sewers or drains."

When in Doubt, Report!
Drivers can never get into trouble for reporting something they did
not need to report, notes Moses. "Just make sure you get the name
and phone number of the person who told you that you didn't need
to make a report. That's the best defense in the world, not only for
a failure-to-report violation at any level, but also for third party
claims," he says.
     Moses advises drivers to log all actions they take after a spill.
"That written record can be used to put the driver and company
in a legally defensible position," he comments. "And don't forget
to make any follow-up reports that may be required," he adds.
"You can minimize the possibility of fines with timely, complete
and accurate reporting."
     The Spill Center, formed in 1990 to provide environmental
claims management services to the trucking industry, maintains a
database of more than 3,000 private spill cleanup contractors in
the U.S. and Canada, according to Moses. Using a proprietary
environmental claims reporting, tracking and documentation system,
the Spill Center levels the playing field for the spill generator who
must deal with regulatory authorities, cleanup contractors and
claimants.
     Spill Center subscribers range from small fleets to large carriers
with extensive in-house haz-mat response capabilities that use the
Spill Center as a 24-hour emergency resource to complement their
own safety personnel. That ensures releases are handled properly
after hours and on weekends.

Times Have Changed
Triple Crown Services, a truckload carrier based in Fort Wayne,
Ind. that hauls general freight from the Midwest to the East Coast,
uses the Spill Center to speed up its response to spills, according
to Safety Manager Tim Fox. The company uses owner-operators
exclusively, and runs about 500 power units.
     "Back in the good old days when you had a spill, the fire
department would show up, pull out a fire hose, wash the diesel
down, and nobody said anything. Today, of course, it's an
environmental issue and you end up with state and county
environmental people out there. It can get very involved and
expensive," says Fox.
     Like most fleet safety directors, he wears many hats. "We
are involved in hazardous materials, transportation safety,
regulatory issues, OSHA requirements and a wide range of other
things. As a result, we have a fairly broad knowledge base from
which to draw," he acknowledges. "But keeping up with
environmental regulations and the variances you find from state
to state and county to county requires an expertise that many of
us don't have. There just isn't the time or the staff to keep track
of everything," he observes.
     As a result, Triple Crown relies on the Spill Center as a key
resource. "They handle my reporting to keep me out of trouble
with the authorities. They have current listings of qualified cleanup
contractors, and they help me find contractors in areas where I
don't already have people set up," he says. "I know I can always
go to the Spill Center with a question and get a reliable answer.
To me, that's invaluable because it allows me to handle these
incidents properly and avoid fines and unreasonable charges."
     Kristi Smith, claims supervisor for Daily Express, Inc., a
truckload carrier based in Carlisle, Pa., also uses the services
of the Spill Center. The fleet, which includes about 400 power
units, mostly owner-operator rigs, hauls farm and construction
equipment and other heavy machinery nationwide.
     "It's difficult to know every environmental regulation for
every locality throughout the country," says Kristi. "The Spill
Center offers that expertise everywhere, around the clock. It's
nice to know that you have it so that you're not inadvertently
violating regulations or forgetting to make notifications."
     She points out that insurance does not cover penalties or
fines incurred as a result of a reporting violation. "It's not the
insurance company's responsibility to report spills to the
authorities. And they don't pay fines for failure to report," she
says.
     "What's nice about the Spill Center is you can report a spill
to them, and they make sure that all the right authorities are
notified. You can also be sure that all the steps needed to
contain the spill and keep your costs down for the cleanup are
taken care of, too," she adds, noting that the Spill Center
monitors cleanup activities and audits invoices.

Offered to Owner-Operators
The Spill Center program can be adapted to the needs of the
independent truck operator, too. "The contingency plan we
provide to owner-operators is a scaled down version of the
same plan provided to the largest LTL carriers that use the
Spill Center services," says Moses. "Our job is to put
transporters in a better position to deal with the regulatory
maze and help drivers make the right moves to protect
themselves and the companies they are leased to," he adds.
     "Sometimes regulatory authorities don't make it easy for
the driver after a spill. They get gruff with you if you miss a
reporting deadline. Some threaten you, saying: 'If you don't
clean it up, we're going to arrest you and impound your truck
until it is cleaned up.'
     "We know that drivers don't deal with these kinds of
things often enough to get good at it," says Moses. "We do it
all the time and nothing but. For the owner-operator, the Spill
Center can be a dispatcher at home when they don't have a
dispatcher. It's a relief to know somebody is in your corner
— only a phone call away."
     The Spill Center has program affiliations with several
trucking industry groups, including the ATA's Safety
Management Council, the National Private Truck Council
and the Chemical Manufacturers Association, through
Chemtrec®, the Chemical Transportation Emergency
Center. For more information, contact the Spill Center,
100 Powdermill Road, Suite 323, Acton MA 01720.
Phone: (978) 897-6461, Fax: (978) 897-9163.


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