The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has fined Champlain Valley Fuels, a fuel delivery company, after it spilled fuel oil at Benson Village School in January 2021.
The company owes the state $9,000 after spilling between 10 and 30 gallons and failing to immediately report the spill to the state. The company had miscalculated the capacity of the school’s 3,000-gallon tank, according to a settlement agreement.
A delivery driver with the company informed school administrators of a roughly five-gallon spill, according to Brooke Olsen-Farrell, superintendent of Slate Valley Unified School District. The company cleaned some of the oil from the site soon after.
When the snow thawed in the springtime after the spill, school administrators noticed an oil smell inside the building and reported it to the state, Olsen-Farrell said.
Oil contaminated 30 tons of soil that needed to be removed, according to a press release from the Agency of Natural Resources. Olsen-Farrell said the spill and cleanup didn’t disrupt operations at Benson Village School, which educates roughly 50 students in preschool through sixth grade.
In an agreement made final in Vermont Superior Court’s Environmental Division last week, Champlain Valley Fuels “agreed to investigate the maximum extent of contamination and complete any additional work needed to remediate the site,” officials said in the press release.
The site is still being monitored, according to Kane Smart, an attorney with the state’s Agency of Natural Resources.
More information about hazardous waste spills can be found at https://dec.vermont.gov/waste-management/spills.
— Emma Cotton
