Who Ya Gonna Call…?

Imagine you’re relaxing at home over the Sunday paper and good cup of coffee. Your wife calls to you from the living room that she’s feeling a little cold and the living room smells like fuel oil.

"Darn it" you think, "the furnace must need cleaning again!" Walking down the basement stairs to check the furnace you cringe when you see a thin red pool of oil spread across the concrete. Then you hear the whir of the sump pump pumping the oil out onto your backyard near your well!

Okay, at this point you:

A. Quickly put the house up for sale?
B. Call your oil company and ask for help?
C. Call your oil company or fire department, and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection?

If you guessed "B" you’re on the right track. If you guessed "C" you are doing much better… but call the DEP you ask? Aren’t those the people that will just fine you for spilling oil?

Actually, state law reads that a person cannot be fined for accidentally spilling oil. Well, you think, its good you won’t get fined, but still, why call them?

Within the DEP there is group called the Division of Response Services. This is a group of DEP staff trained in cleaning up and investigating spills of oil and hazardous materials. The DEP responders are outfitted with remediation tools, experience and other resources to help take care of that oil spill.

Besides normal business hours, DEP’s Response Staff is available to respond to emergency oil & chemical spills 24 hours a day, all year. To contact them call toll free 1-800-482-0777 instate or call direct to one of the four regional offices.

Usually your oil company or fire department will be the first ones there with tools and materials to stop a leak. One of the first things the DEP responder will do is assess the cause, how much spilled, what’s threatened (a well, etc.) and how to clean up.

If you’re like most people you don’t have the money to hire a contractor for a clean up and too often your insurance won’t cover it! Fortunately, the legislature has established an Aboveground Oil Tank Insurance Program run jointly by the DEP and Fire Marshal to assist tank owners with clean-ups of leaking tanks. In an emergency, using this insurance, your DEP responder can hire a contractor, sample wells, and put a filter on any wells that become contaminated.

If you don’t have the money, the DEP responder can manage the clean-up and have invoices for allowable costs sent directly to the DEP. The DEP responder will contact the Fire Marshal and ask them to send you an Insurance Fund application. A deductible is required, based on the number and size of your oil tanks. If you cannot afford to reimburse for this deductible, you may be eligible for an "inability to pay" variance.

Spill clean-ups and resulting damages can vary depending on the situation; many expenses are on a case by case basis. For more information please call your regional DEP office listed in the phone book.

Hopefully, you’ll make it through the winter without a leaky oil tank. But if you don’t, who ya gonna call? The DEP!

Steve Brezinski

Maine DEP