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Oil spill leads to arrest
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By Adriane Tillman
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Photo courtesy of Metro-North Railroad
An aerial photo of the Croton-Harmon Train Station shows the scene of the fuel spill. The yard sits close to the Hudson River.
The Westchester County Police arrested 56-year old Kenneth McHale of White Plains, who reported the diesel spill on March 29.
McHale initially reported only a five-gallon spill, but county police believe Metro-North knew it was a larger spill at the time since 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel had been sucked from the containment basin the same day, according to Westchester County Police Director of Environmental Security Ron Gatto.
Two days later, on March 31, the Hudson River watchdog group Riverkeeper received an anonymous tip that 17,000 gallons of diesel fuel had actually leaked – not five gallons – into the soil.
Riverkeeper then notified the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) about the discrepancy and Metro-North confirmed the spill was larger than estimated.
Metro-North Railroad spokesperson Marjorie Anders called the charges against McHale “outrageous.” She said McHale immediately switched off the fuel pumps and reported the spill to DEC. She said bringing such charges against McHale for the spill is like “shooting the messenger.”
McHale did not recover 4,000 gallons of fuel on the day of the spill, according to Anders, and the company continues to investigate if another employee had made a recovery.
Anders said McHale initially estimated five gallons of fuel had spilled after seeing the amount that had spilled on the floor of the pump station.
“The charges are unfounded because this is not a criminal act,” Anders said. “This was an accident that was brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities immediately. McHale reported it. He had nothing to do with the spill.”
The county’s district attorney’s office charged McHale with violating the New York Environmental Conservation Law section 71-2711 (1) for “endangering public health, safety or the environment,” a class A misdemeanor.
After investigating the spill further on Monday, Metro-North reported that it was far larger than expected and that 17,000 gallons of fuel had spilled directly into the soil – not into the sewage treatment plant.
The train yard is under major construction since contractors began building three new shops to replace the maintenance facility, and they had temporarily disconnected the pipes that flow from the catch basin in the shop to the sewage treatment plant.
In the event of a spill, fuel should have flowed into the catch basin, through the pipes into the sewage treatment plant where it could have been recovered. Instead it flowed into surrounding soil.
When Metro-North officials went to the sewage treatment plant to recover the spilt fuel on Monday, they found there was no fuel in the sewage plant, realized the pipes had been disconnected, and then began calculating the amount of lost fuel, according to Anders.
“The pipes were temporarily disconnected and notifications were not made so there was a problem here,” Anders said. “We don’t deny that a problem exists, but it was not an intentional criminal act. It was an accident.”
Metro-North has vacuumed more than 14,000 gallons of fuel from the ground, and replaced it with rock. Approximately 600 tons of contaminated soil has been removed. The railroad has installed a network of interconnected wells to mitigate any unrecovered fuel.
Metro-North said the fuel has not contaminated the Hudson River or any of the nearby waterways. The Croton-Harmon yard has been pumping oil from the ground for years, polluted by previous railroad companies, and the wells have not shown that the spill has migrated, according to Anders.
Gatto said his department investigated the case like any other complaint, and believed McHale’s actions amounted to a crime against the conservation law. He added Metro-North has been very cooperative during the investigation.
“This is an example of how the county feels about pollution in Westchester County,” Gatto said. “We’re zero percent tolerance on anyone polluting the environment in Westchester County.”
The Croton Village Court will arraign McHale on May 28.
Croton Trustee Ann Gallelli said the village board is concerned about any environmental accident that occurs within the village.
“The fact the charges were brought is good evidence that people are taking it seriously,” Gallelli said.
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