Petroleum company fined $1 million for leaks into the Schuylkill
The company was fined for a series of leaks discovered in 2018 and 2019 that left an oily sheen on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Southwest Philadelphia.
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An oily sheen began to shimmer on the west bank of the Schuylkill in Southwest Philadelphia in October 2018.
People noticed.
They alerted officials, including the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. By early 2019, DEP inspectors traced the leaks to a petroleum facility off Essington Avenue, owned by PBF Logistics Products Terminals. The inspectors found a pinhole-sized leak in a pipe “from which petroleum product had been leaking slowly for many years,” according to a court document. A second leak was also found.
This week, the DEP announced two separate penalties totaling more than $1 million against the Parsippany, N.J.-based company for violating the state’s Clean Streams Law.
“DEP takes matters of environmental protection seriously,” Pat Patterson, the department’s southeast regional director, said in a statement. “Whether it be through a penalty, corrective action, or both, DEP will always work to ensure that facilities are brought into compliance.”
Representatives for PLPT did not return a phone call or email seeking comment.
The department ordered the company to pay an $800,000 penalty in December 2021, which it paid. It ordered a second penalty of $250,000 on Wednesday. The agency announced both actions this week.
The company has its facility on the 6000 block of Essington Avenue, containing 37 aboveground storage tanks, two underground storage tanks, and a stormwater system all permitted and regulated by the DEP.
In seeking to find the leak, the petroleum company dug up a 38-foot section of corroded pipe in January 2019 and found a pinhole leak that had been active for years. The company replaced the pipe and other relevant infrastructure. For that leak, the DEP fined the company $800,000 and ordered it to make upgrades at the facility.
That same month, DEP inspectors discovered oil seeping into the Schuylkill from two locations below the waterline near the facility’s bulkhead. They found another leak seeping in a nearby tributary. Those three leaks, described as a “black petroleum substance,” resulted in the sheen on the river.
During its inspection, the DEP also found faulty maintenance and operation of an oil water separator. They found excessive discharge, inadequate record keeping and system monitoring — all violations of the company’s discharger permit. For those violations, the company was fined $250,000.