Company Pays $50K Settlement After Employees Hosed Petroleum Liquid Down Sonoma Co. Storm Drain

A diagnostic imaging company that washed a spilled liquid containing petroleum down a storm drain has paid more than $50,000 in the settlement of a civil environmental enforcement case filed by the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office.

Trius Diagnostic Imaging Inc. of Stockton agreed to pay $50,661 in cleanup costs and penalties in connection with the incident on Oct. 29, 2013, District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced Tuesday.

[Also this week: Safeway to Pay Nearly $10M for Improper Disposal of Hazardous Waste and 99 Cents Only Stores to Pay $2.3 Million to Settle Hazardous Waste Case.]

The company’s employees spilled the liquid while they were removing radiology equipment from a medical office onto a truck at the Spring Creek Medical Plaza in Santa Rosa, Ravitch said.

Instead of reporting the spill, the employees hosed the spilled material into a storm drain leading to Spring Creek.

A citizen who noticed the spill called Santa Rosa police and the city fire department’s hazardous materials team responded, Ravitch said.

The owners of Spring Creek Medical Plaza used a private company to clean the spilled liquid. First responders could not determine how much liquid spilled or whether it entered the creek, Ravitch said.

The $50,661 penalty includes $34,818 for the cleanup, $7,500 for an unlawful business activity and $5,343 in investigative costs.

The company also will pay $3,000 restitution that will benefit local watershed projects in the county, according to the district attorney’s office.

--Bay City News

--Image via Shutterstock

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