(The Associated Press circulated the following article on March 12.)
RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J. — The state is considering penalties against a rail operator here for a fuel oil spill that dumped as much as 1,000 gallons into the Hackensack River last year.
State environmental officials claim the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway failed to alert them over the Nov. 25 mishap and then didn’t help in the first stages of the cleanup.
The spill happened at the railroad’s Ridgefield Park yard when a parked locomotive sprang a leak. It caused an oil slick that spread along the east bank of the river for at least 2,000 feet.
“We told them, ‘You need to get this pumped out now,’ and they were not willing to do that ‘now,”‘ Gary Pearson, regional supervisor in the state Department of Environmental Protection’s emergency response branch told The Record of Bergen County for Sunday newspapers.
The DEP is considering “enforcement actions,” said DEP spokesman Karen Hershey.
Nathan Fenno, a vice president with the Cooperstown, N.Y.-based railroad, acknowledged it could have done more in the early stages of the spill.
“Did we respond perfectly and as quickly as perhaps we would have liked in retrospect?” Fenno said. “That’s certainly arguable.”
Pearson said the rail operator initially stalled at cleaning out an oil-water separator at the site that was overwhelmed by the spill. The railroad also balked at hiring a contractor to clean up the spill _ but later paid a crew the state had brought in.
“I think they would have preferred that we do all the cleanup and bill them and then they could contest the bill,” he said.
Fenno attributed the delay to initial confusion about whether the company would hire its own contractor or keep a crew brought in by the state. But he said the railroad should have notified the DEP.