LEWISTON – When even a gallon of oil is spilled, it must be reported to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Industry wants that changed. It wants some spills to go unreported.
State Rep. Thomas Saviello, I-Wilton, asked for the change last year, said George Seel, who oversees hazardous waste spills at DEP.
The department is to give the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee its recommendation on Feb. 15. As of Tuesday that recommendation was not complete, Seel said.
Saviello, who is environmental manager at International Paper, earlier this week removed himself from the Natural Resources Committee while the ethics commission, at his request, investigates whether his job poses a conflict of interest with the committee assignment.
Seel said he has concerns about easing the law, which cannot be changed without legislative action.
“The downside of allowing larger spills to go unreported is that over time it can create a culture in the work force that it’s OK to spill 50 or 200 gallons. If it wasn’t OK, you’d have to report it,” Seel said.
Spills are exempt from enforcement when they are reported and cleaned up with DEP oversight, he said.
After Saviello asked that a change be considered, the Natural Resources Committee asked the department to form a task force of citizens, industry representatives and environmentalists.
As a member of that stakeholders group, Saviello proposed allowing spills of less than 50 gallons to go unreported. Fellow member Mike Barden of the Maine Pulp and Paper Association proposed increasing that amount to 200 gallons when the spills are contained and the company has cleanup expertise.
Technically, a drop of spilled oil must be reported, Barden said, adding that it is a bone of contention in industry.
Having to report a spill on a concrete floor that doesn’t escape the building doesn’t make a lot of sense, Barden said. “We have these spills all the time. We might have a hydraulic line on a paper machine bust.”
Large spills at paper mills do not go into the river or the ground, Barden said. When the spills enter the mills’ drains, the spilled oil ends up in the mill’s treatment plant, he said.
DEP’s Seel agreed that when a spill happens in a concrete dike and is cleaned, there is little impact. But when a spill goes down a sewer system and into a mill’s treatment plant, “Some molecules will make it to the Androscoggin River,” he said.
Larger spills pose environmental risks, Seel said. “There’s a greater likelihood that it will reach bare soil.” Once oil reaches soil, underground water is at risk of contamination, he said.
He questioned whether the public would be confident knowing that industries would be allowed to spill up to 200 gallons on the honor system, and that they would do a good job of cleaning up.
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