Spill Reporting
Spill Center is a nationwide, 24-hour emergency resource dedicated to reducing environmental liability for companies that become spill generators.
Hudson, MA (PRWEB) January 07, 2015
Spill Center, a North American leader in spill support and environmental claims management, offers advice on responding to official demands and notices of violation after spills of hazardous materials and other regulated substances in its latest podcast.
Tom Moses, president of Spill Center, discusses how spill-generators can best respond to official demands, penalties and fines in the podcast, which also addresses the legal liability of the “party with care, custody and control” of regulated materials at the time of the spill and the responsibility of the spill-generator to report and clean up the release.
“Failure to report or late reporting can result in a Request for Information, Notice of Violation or a penalty or fine,” relates Moses. He talks about the proper way to respond to each of those eventualities, including the best way to maintain a legally defensible position in the case of third-party claims.
He also discusses ways to avoid paying fines by proposing alternative solutions or agreeing to a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP), which can reduce or eliminate a penalty. He also advises spill-generators to consider retaining their own experts to challenge official findings.
“In a recent case, a tank truck released 4,000 gallons of a methanol-based cleaning compound into a creek. The carrier decided to bring in an environmental expert for a second opinion after an agent of the state Department of Environmental Quality ordered that the water in the creek and a nearby pond be drained and scrapped,” recounts Moses.
But a local consultant was retained on behalf of the carrier who showed that the methanol compound would evaporate and degrade within 8 days, with no residue left behind, Moses relates in the podcast.
“The spill would have cost the carrier $305,000 more if they had accepted the initial finding of the DEQ agent,” he observes.
The new podcast is online and available at no charge at http://spillcenter.podomatic.com/entry/2014-12-01T12_05_37-08_00. For more information on Spill Center subscriber services and how Spill Center can help your company become better prepared to handle spills requiring emergency cleanup and reporting, call Tom Moses at 978-568-1922, x222. Or visit Spill Center online at http://www.spillcenter.net.