BEP to consider fining Sprague Operating Resources $17,800 for trash spill in Penobscot Bay
PENOBSCOT BAY — Exactly one year after two large bales of compact trash from Ireland spilled and dispersed into the waters of Penobscot Bay at Searsport, the Maine Board of Environmental Protection will consider a $17,800 fine be imposed on Sprague Operating Resources LLC.
The Islesboro Island Trust has stated that the fine amount is inadequate, and wants the fine to be $340,000. Likewise, the Conservation Law Foundation also pressed the DEP to impose heftier fines and penalties on Sprague.
“As currently drafted the proposed Administrative Consent Agreement does not go far enough to hold Sprague accountable for its past actions nor to ensure that another spill will not occur,” said the Conservation Law Foundation.
In response, the DEP defended its $17,800 fine, saying it: “carefully applied its penalty policy and utilized the usual tools and methods to discern the monetary penalty in a manner that is consistent with other violations of 38 M.R.S. § 413(1) and Clean Water Act enforcement actions. The Department concluded that the proposed monetary penalty is appropriate given the following considerations: the clean-up of the spilled materials was incomplete and not immediate, the event was isolated and not readily foreseeable, and the loading and unloading of bulk cargo at the Sprague facility is not directly regulated by the Department.”
The BEP will convene at 10 a.m., in a hybrid meeting, with some members attending in person Augusta, and others joining online via Zoom:https://mainestate.zoom.us/j/86573497616. Meeting ID: 865 7349 7616
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has proposed a consent agreement, and in a memo to the BEP, Pamela Parker, of the Maine DEP Division of Water Quality Management, wrote: “A significant amount of shredded plastic was discharged to the environment and was not completely recovered as part of the clean-up efforts. The plastic left in the environment poses an ingestion hazard for sea life, will degrade over time into gradually smaller pieces of plastic (microplastics) that have been demonstrated to damage organs and leach chemicals into the marine organisms that happen to ingest them.”
On December 2, 2020, two large bales of compacted trash from Ireland dropped into Penobscot Bay waters while being unloaded from a ocean freighter at Mack Point in Searsport, dispersing fragments of plastic on the tide and currents. The public outcry was substantial as the news spread globally, and the DEP vowed it would launch an investigation.
Employees of Sprague Operating Resources LLC, the privately owned company that operates the facility at Mack Point, were operating the crane on the M/V Sider London to offload bales of solid recovered fuel (SRF) destined for incineration at the Penobscot Energy Recovery Company waste to energy plant in Orrington.
According to the DEP, on December 23, 2020, a dive team recovered the second bale of material from the bottom of the harbor, and removed it intact.
“The inspection and clean-up efforts continued through January 5, 2021,” the DEP said. “Plastic consistent with the SRF remained in the seaweed wrack line after the suspension of clean-up efforts.”
The bales weighed approximately 2,500 pounds combined, and consisted of approximately 80% shredded plastic, 11% paper, 8% fabric and 1% other non-putrescible materials.
In its memo to the BEP, the DEP said Sprague has subsequently: “revised portions of the Terminal Operation Manual, including specific risk assessment tools that include potential environmental impacts from cargo loss to provide a more thorough evaluation of environmental risks posed by a potential spill of material during terminal operations. The Department has reviewed those procedures and provided input to Sprague. Sprague has implemented those procedures.”
But the Islesboro Islands Trust wants a far heftier fine imposed on Sprague for violating Maine’s pollution control law, 38 M.R.S § 413(1).
The land trust submitted testimony to the DEP, saying:
(1) shredded plastic waste is a petroleum product containing harmful, persistent chemicals that becomes increasingly bioavailable in the environment;
(2) an appropriate $340,000 penalty for violating 38 M.R.S. § 412(1) for at least 34 days is supported by comparable levels of penalty found in Maine law and in line with at least one other petroleum-related penalty imposed by DEP; and
(3) Sprague’s Terminal Operations Manual (TOM), Safety Inspection Form and Dry Cargo Risk Assessment Form must explicitly acknowledge that shredded plastic waste is (a) hazardous, (b) cannot in all likelihood ever be fully retrieved once disposed into Maine waters, and (c) represents an unacceptable level of risk when transported wrapped in breakable film rather than in sealed containers.
Oil and oil products comprise the basic ingredient in making plastic and plastics contain chemicals severely harmful to humans and the environment.
”A penalty of $340,000 aligns with the $310,225 Pan American Railways fine for illegal discharges of oil into the Kennebec River. IIT also recommended that $25,000 of this total be allocated as a supplemental environmental project to Friends of Sears Island in light of their immediate and substantial assistance in managing cleanup along the Sears Island shore and the likelihood of their eyes-on-the-ground should another spill occur,” wrote the land trust.
“Sprague Operating Resources must be sanctioned for spilling shredded plastic waste into Penobscot Bay and for not immediately reporting the plastics discharge; protocols and penalties must be imposed that discourage importing shredded plastic trash in this form and that ensure thorough, rapid and effective clean-up of any such waste spill in future,” the land trust said, at the end of October.
Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657
