(The following article by Aliana Ramos was posted on the Belleville News-Democrat website on December 6.)
BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Thousands of gallons of diesel fuel allegedly leaked into elevated storm water collection tanks at a Union Pacific Railroad Co. yard in Dupo, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday by the Illinois attorney’s general’s office.
Kathryn Blackwell, director of corporate communication for Union Pacific Railroad, said Monday that she did not yet have enough information to comment.
“This situation posed a significant threat to the area in and around the rail yard,” said Attorney General Lisa Madigan in a statement released Monday. “Groundwater and Dupo’s water treatment system were both at risk of contamination.”
After the oil and water are separated from the liquid collected in the elevated stormwater collection tanks, the wastewater flows into a well that ultimately is deposited into Dupo’s wastewater treatment system.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency inspected the rail yard on Oct. 3, in response to an anonymous complaint that diesel was “spraying” out of an above-ground stormwater collection tank on Sept. 28.
By Oct. 4, about 2,850 gallons of diesel fuel were removed from the containment area and wells and on Oct. 7 Union Pacific retrieved more than 9,800 gallons from the stormwater tanks, according to the lawsuit filed in St. Clair County.
The attorney general’s office is asking for $50,000 civil penalty and an additional $10,000 for each day the violation continued, said the statement.