Enid, Oklahoma-based Groendyke Transport Inc. has agreed to pay $138,500 to settle a lawsuit by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accusing the tanker truck firm of spilling fuel, asphalt and acid, according to the EPA.
The EPA had sued the company in 2001 in Denver federal court for two violations of the Clean Water Act. A judge approved the negotiated settlement in which Groendyke will pay a $48,475 civil penalty to the federal government and $90,025 for equipment and supplies needed by local fire departments in their response.
The company did not admit any wrongdoing in connection with a spill of 8,700 gallons of gasoline into the South Platte River in Denver in 1998 and a spill of 5,000 gallons of asphalt in 2000 into a creek near Golden, Colorado. In both cases, the company’s tanker trucks overturned, according to court records.
Settlement documents also mentioned 29 other spills of hazardous materials by Groendyke trucks in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana from 1994 to 2002.
