Spills into Nottoway River net $1 million in penalties

Three companies that run a chemical plant in Franklin have agreed to pay more than $1 million in penalties for a series of toxic spills into the Nottoway River, which supplies drinking water for Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

The federal government sued the three companies and has already received $365,000 from Eastman Chemical Resins, according to settlement papers. The other two, Hercules and GEO Specialty Chemicals, have agreed to pay $700,000, officials said.

Officials said there should be no concern over the quality of tap water. The discharges, which took place between 2005 and 2007, occurred downstream from the water intake pipe.

The Department of Justice filed a 40-page civil action on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency against Hercules and GEO on Sept. 29, and a settlement agreement is expected to be filed any day. A spokesman for Hercules confirmed the matter had been settled.

In an email, EPA spokeswoman Donna Heron said: "The EPA has been in extensive settlement discussions with these companies. And by filing both the complaint and settlement at the same time, it saves the government and ultimately the taxpayer the expense of litigation."

In an unrelated action, Hercules paid a $14,000 state fine in August for an unauthorized discharge, in September 2010, of ammonia-contaminated water into a canal that leads to the Nottoway. GEO paid the state a $12,800 fine in 2008 for a 1,800-gallon chemical spill into the river. Both spills, like some of the others listed by the EPA, caused fish kills in the Nottoway.

The chemical plant, which has been around since 1955, is on about 120 acres three miles west of Franklin where Va. 650 and 671 meet. The Nottoway River is a quarter-mile away and linked by a canal.

Hercules operated the entire facility until 2001, when it sold off two units on-site to Eastman and GEO. The plant produces rosin, fatty acids and organic peroxides. The primary raw material is tall oil, a byproduct of the wood pulping industry.

The federal lawsuit lists five spills that occurred between 2005 and 2007.

In 2005, at least 100 pounds of crude tall oil and fatty acids were discharged into the canal and later found downstream in the river. Later that year, 20 gallons of a combustible chemical were discharged through the canal and into the river, A similar spill occurred in 2006 and two more in 2007, according to the lawsuit.

Other allegations in the suit:

-- A dam-and-containment system at the canal failed to prevent discharges into the river.

-- Hercules failed to implement an emergency response training program and failed to conduct annual training drills as required by federal law.

-- An inventory of storage tanks failed to identify four above-ground tanks containing chemical mixtures, two 300-gallon fatty acid reclamation vats and several 55-gallon drums of oil.

-- Hercules failed to report storage of sulfuric acid, a hazardous chemical.

Officials involved said the case has taken years to reach the point of settlement.

Jim Vitak, a spokesman for Columbus, Ohio-based Ashland, the parent company of Hercules, maintains that the company did nothing wrong. Hercules merely owns the land underneath the equipment operated by Eastman and GEO, he said.

"The important points are while we're pleased to have this matter brought to a resolution, from our standpoint we denied that we violated any regulations or that we were responsible for those of GEO or Eastman," he said.

Eastman's corporate communications office in Kingsport, Tenn., issued a statement saying that the spills were minor and did not result in significant environmental damage. According to the statement:

"Eastman made substantial capital improvements to spill preparedness at the site even before receiving EPA's inspection report. The company also has made improvements to its waste water treatment system and procedures to characterize wastes.

"Eastman takes great care in our day-to-day operations to protect the river. We have a strong environmental management system in place and continually work at improving it."

GEO did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com