OXFORD – Superintendent Rick Colpitts told the Oxford Hills School District Board of Directors on Monday night that someone cut copper lines from an oil tank at the Otisfield Community School and an estimated 100 gallons of oil onto the ground.

“Due to someone’s greed we have to bear the brunt of an environmental disaster,” Colpitts said.

The theft took place over the Thanksgiving Day holiday when a person or persons took a bolt cutter and snipped copper tubing that went to an outside gas tank. A second attempt to get to copper tubing at another outside gas tank was unsuccessful, because the tubing was buried in the ground, he said.

The Department of Environmental Protection was notified and cleanup efforts are under way, Colpitts said.

While the school’s insurance and the DEP’s insurance program will cover the cost of the cleanup, Colpitts said the school will have to test the water over the next six months to make sure no oil has gone into the private well. The DEP will remove any contaminated soil.

Colpitts said after the meeting that he should know the cost of the cleanup later this week.

“It’s a sad situation over there,” he told directors.

Colpitts said police believe the theft is tied into similar theft of copper at four nearby camps.

Police said thefts of valuable metals have been on the rise in Western Maine this year. Law enforcement agencies have reported theft of items such as catalytic converters and utility pole grounding wires, including Paris and Bridgton.

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