SPCC Fine of $15,000 Plus Clean Up for Grant Aviation

Bungled fuel-spill cleanup costs company $21,500

GRANT AVIATION: Judge orders reimbursement, fine for errors at Emmonak.

By ALEX deMARBANAnchorage Daily News

Published: February 10, 2007 Last Modified: February 10, 2007 at 03:19 AM
An Anchorage-based airline must pay more than $20,000 for a botched fuel-spill cleanup that polluted a marsh near the Yukon River, a judge ruled this week.

Employees of Grant Aviation Inc. spilled between 500 and 1,000 gallons of jet fuel at the airport in Emmonak in February 2003, while transferring the fuel between tanks.
Grant's initial response was terrific, said Bob Carlson, the state's primary spill responder for Western Alaska. The company reported the spill shortly after it happened.
But Carlson said he was told that no fuel escaped the containment area around the tank farm and that the spilled fuel would be removed promptly. Those statements proved to be incorrect, he said.
The company initially broke the law when it didn't submit a written cleanup report within 15 days, a class A misdemeanor, Carlson said.
Robert Bruce McGlasson, Grant Aviation's president, entered a no contest plea on Tuesday to one count of failing to write that report. Four other charges against the company, for violating the state's oil spill laws and reporting requirements, were dismissed. Also dismissed were identical charges filed against McGlasson.
As part of a plea agreement, Anchorage District Judge Paul Olson sentenced the company to a $15,000 fine. Grant agreed to pay within six months.
The company also must pay $6,522.43 to reimburse the Department of Environmental Conservation for the costs of investigating the spill. The company will be on probation for three years.
Carlson is DEC's only spill responder in Bethel and oversees 65 villages. Because he'd seen photos of some cleanup and thought the spill was contained, he didn't fly to Emmonak to check until October 2003, he said.
When Carlson did get to the village, he found that fuel-contaminated water had been pumped onto the ground outside a containment area protected by earthen berms, he said. Fuel also floated on water in the containment area, he said.
The company should have cleaned up all the fuel during the initial response, he said. The fuel eventually reached a nearby marsh, contaminating a stretch about 100 to 150 feet long, he said.
Jeff Taggart, a Grant Aviation owner, said untrained employees caused the spill. They tried to clean up the mess before contacting company officials, making things worse, he said.
Grant Aviation has spent about $250,000 on such things as shipping contaminated soil to Seattle for incineration, Taggart said. Cleanup was finished in 2004.
Grant also has trained its employees on oil spill response, he said, and hired an engineering firm to design a system for treating rain or snow that falls into the tank farm and becomes contaminated.
As part of Tuesday's sentence, the company agreed to maintain and make further improvements to the water-treatment system.
"In the end, Grant did the right thing and we got a system in place we're satisfied with," said Daniel Cheyette, assistant attorney general.
Daily News reporter Alex deMarban can be reached at ademarban@adn.com or (907) 257-4310.