A Connecticut transportation company will pay millions of dollars in penalties and cleanup costs related to a 2022 gasoline spill – the biggest in the state’s history, according to Attorney General William Tong.
“Soundview is fully responsible for the ongoing remediation and clean-up of the site, costing millions of dollars,” a Wednesday news release on the company’s settlement with the state noted.
Soundview also faces penalties and payments totaling $350,000 in connection with the accident in Norfolk.
Two smaller spills – in Milford in March 2023 and at the Gateway Montville terminal in September 2023 – are included in the settlement and have been remediated, the attorney general’s office said.
The Norfolk accident caused “severe disruption to neighbors and significant environmental harm,” the release stated. “Soundview has taken responsibility for the ongoing remediation, and the state continues to closely monitor that work.”
Early on Nov. 5, 2022, a tanker truck leased and operated by Soundview struck a fire hydrant and utility pole on State Route 44 in Norfolk, according to the attorney general’s office. It rolled, slid several hundred feet on the road and spilled its entire 8,200 gallons of gasoline through the ruptured tank, “contaminating the yards of nearby residences and traveling through the town’s stormwater sewer system into nearby surface and groundwaters.”
Nearby residents were evacuated until that evening amid fears of a possible explosion.
Ground saturated with gasoline at the nearest properties had to be excavated to 9 feet deep, and 600 tons of contaminated soil and 90,000 gallons of contaminated water were removed.
The $350,000 penalty to be paid to the state includes a $200,000 payment to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, a $100,000 civil penalty and $50,000 to the Office of the Attorney General’s Consumer Fund to support enforcement actions.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website states that Soundview has 48 drivers and 45 power units. Its 11.8% vehicle out-of-service rate is about half the national average, and its 2.2% driver out-of-service rate is about one-third the national average.
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