August 9, 2005

Ingham County 30th Circuit Court Judge Joyce A. Draganchuk has ordered the Bulk Petroleum Corp. of Marinette, Wisconsin, and its owner, Darshan S. Dhaliwal, to pay an additional $1,418,900 in civil penalties for chronic failure to properly assess and clean up gasoline contamination. The case is the result of a 1987 release from leaking underground storage tanks at Bulk Petroleum’s MSI #612 site located in Hartland, Michigan. The civil penalty follows an initial $1,090,000 Department of Environmental Quality administrative penalty upheld by the court in the fall of 2003.

“This case sends a clear message that the DEQ will take strong actions on blatant disregard of public health and the environment,” said DEQ Director Steven E. Chester. “I am pleased that the courts continue to affirm that polluters must be held liable for actions that put our citizens at risk.”

The penalty rulings are the result of a lawsuit filed by the Attorney General on behalf of the DEQ in December 2001. Through a highly cooperative effort, the agencies sought a total of $3,364,400 in fines and penalties for Bulk Petroleum’s multiple violations of Part 213, Leaking Underground Storage Tanks, and Part 201, Environmental Remediation, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, as amended, and for failure to comply with a June 1993 Department of Natural Resources Administrative Order compelling cleanup of the facility.

"This is the largest penalty yet issued in Michigan against a gas station owner or operator for failure to investigate and remedy environmental contamination," said Attorney General Mike Cox. "The longer a polluter delays in fixing the problem, the more costly to them their mistake will be."

In the initial 2003 court decision, Judge Thomas L. Brown awarded a $1,000 per day penalty for a three year period for Bulk Petroleum’s specific failure to submit a complete Final Assessment Report as required by Part 213. Judge Brown also postponed a decision on the remaining $2.275 million in penalties sought by the agencies and placed the case under court advisement to monitor Bulk Petroleum’s progress toward cleaning up the site.

In 2004, following Judge Brown's decision, Bulk Petroleum performed cleanup work at the site, which significantly reduced the amount of contamination. Earlier this year the state returned to the court requesting a final decision on the outstanding penalties. The state argued that for over a decade, prior to their recent cleanup actions, Bulk Petroleum failed to take appropriate actions, ignored an order to clean up the site, and was in chronic violation of cleanup laws. Judge Draganchuk agreed and ordered Bulk Petroleum to pay $694,300 for historically failing to address free product, $422,300 for chronically failing to properly address soil contamination, and $302,300 for not implementing cleanup actions necessary to protect the public health and the environment.

The company sold the Hartland property earlier this year, but remains liable for final cleanup of the contamination.

Editor’s note: DEQ news releases are available on the department’s Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

“Protecting Michigan’s Environment, Ensuring Michigan’s Future”

Revised August 9, 2005 by Pat Watson