Tuesday, January 11, 2000
FBI checks possibility of sabotage in tank spill
BY EARNEST WINSTON and BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The FBI has joined the investigation into why a tank at a Riverside company ruptured over the weekend, spilling 379,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer into the Ohio River and onto the ground.
The hazardous materials unit of the FBI on Monday joined the investigation at Southside River Rail, “just in case somebody did this on purpose. But we don't think that's the case,” Assistant Chief Mike Kroeger said.
“We want make sure we cover all angles on this.”
Officials today plan to empty out two other tanks — one which has liquid fertilizer and one filled with a petroleum-based solvent.
On Monday, investigators gave top priority to removing most of the 360,000 gallons of a petroleum based-oil in a tank severely damaged by a dent.
Although the tank was not leaking, officials said they worried about its structural integrity. If the tank had released the nonhazardous oil, it could have polluted the environment, Mr. Kroeger said.
The petroleum based-oil was loaded onto a barge and taken to another storage area.
About 2,000 feet of boom was placed in the Ohio River to minimize the spread of the spill.
The cause of Saturday's tank rupture is not clear, and it may take months to wrap up the investigation. No one was injured.
Although a dike must be able to contain 110 percent of the contents of the tank it surrounds, it was not clear wheth er a dike must withstand the catastrophic structural failure experienced Saturday when a wave of liquid fertilizer washed away part of the berm.
Ohio's Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) said dikes were regulated by federal rules.
However, at EPA regional headquarters in Chicago, there was uncertainty over which division and law governed dikes, because it might depend on what was being stored. There also was uncertainty over responsibility for inspecting tanks and dikes.
The absence of regular inspections by local and state officials was confirmed Monday.
“We don't necessarily inspect tank farms for tank integrity,” said Kevin Clouse, statewide manager for the emergency response and special investigations section of OEPA.
In part, OEPA generally lacks authority over stored materials unless they are regulated wastes. In many cases, stored materials are unregulated.
Similarly, Spc. Mike Peterman — storage tank “watchdog” for the Cincinnati Fire Division — said he checks company records annually to see whether plumbing repairs or upgrades are tested and comply with American Petroleum Institute standards. “It's a paperwork thing,” he said, and he doesn't check the hardware.
Regarding regulations of the tanks at the Riverside company, Spc. Peterman said each year the company hires a third-party
inspector to check the structural integrity of the tanks. The company then makes a report and the EPA double-checks that report for accuracy.
Chuck Parrish, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Louisville, said the corps conducts no routine inspections of tank farms. Its latest involvement with Southside was in 1989, when the corps gave the company a permit for riverbank protection, he said.
Long before that, the corps issued whatever permits were required for Southside to moor barges along the Ohio riverbank, he said.
Unless a problem affects navigation or riverbank integrity, the corps generally lacks authorization and personnel to revisit a site after any of its permits is issued, Mr. Parrish added.
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