Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Media Contact: Michael Rafferty, (651) 297-8294 Technical Contact: Joe Henderson, (651) 297-8496 St. Paul, Minn. - Under an agreement with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), Aircraft Service International Inc. (ASII) will pay $55,000 for an alleged environmental violation and additional problems at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. ASII failed to correct problems outlined in a March 2005 agreement with the MPCA. The company did not take appropriate actions to prevent a jet fuel spill at the airport's Post Road tank farm, and failed to properly recover and manage fuel and fuel/water mixtures. ASII has subsequently repaired the tank gauge system that caused the fuel spill and has taken other measures to comply with the 2005 agreement. In June 2005, MPCA emergency response staff responded to a spill at the Post Road tank farm. An inspection showed that the tank gauge system and alarm were not working for one of the tanks. This system and alarm failure led to a significant and preventable jet fuel spill at the tank farm earlier that month. When the spill was discovered, a tanker was used to treat and store fuel and water mixtures. However, the airport's fuel recovery plan does not allow this, and requires fuel or fuel and water mixtures to be transferred to an on-site pretreatment tank or collected for off-site recycling. An agreement such as this is one of the MPCA's many tools used to achieve compliance with environmental laws. When calculating penalties, the MPCA takes into account how seriously the violation affected the environment, whether it is a first time or repeat violation, and how promptly the violation was reported to appropriate authorities. It also attempts to recover the calculated economic benefit gained by failure to comply with environmental laws in a timely manner. For a comprehensive list of enforcement actions by the MPCA, refer to the agency Web site at: hhref="/newscenter/enforcement.html. Reporter's Note: In March 2005, ASII paid $41,666 for environmental violations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport's Lindbergh Terminal and $45,000 for environmental violations at the Humphrey Terminal. The Minneapolis Fuels Committee has not employed ASII to operate the Post Road or Humphrey Terminal tank farms or perform hydrant fuel system maintenance at the Lindbergh or Humphrey Terminals since November 2004. The MFC previously contracted with ASII to operate the fuel tanks, fuel pipeline system, oil/water separators, the vehicle maintenance facility, and plane fueling at the Lindbergh Terminal.