State of Illinois Settles Ethanol Spill Fish Kill Case

- by Pam Egge­meier, March 5, 2015, Sauk Val­ley

A set­tle­ment has been reached with a rail­road com­pa­ny respon­si­ble for an ethanol spill that caused a sig­nif­i­cant fish kill in the Rock Riv­er near­ly 6 years ago, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Lisa Madigan’s office announced Thursday.

In June 2009, a Chica­go, Cen­tral and Pacif­ic Rail­road train derailed in Rock­ford, killing one per­son. The explo­sion and result­ing fire caused the release of up to 75,000 gal­lons of an ethanol and gaso­line mix­ture into the sur­round­ing envi­ron­ment, includ­ing sev­er­al miles of the Rock Riv­er and its tributaries.

The set­tle­ment calls for CCP to pay $150,000 to the Illi­nois Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency and Win­neba­go Coun­ty to set­tle alleged vio­la­tions of the state’s Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Act.

Madi­gan said CCP also agreed to pay $270,000 to the Illi­nois Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources to fund restora­tion of two nature areas near the Rock Riv­er. The com­pa­ny will also pay for a $150,000 stream restora­tion project in the affect­ed area.

“This set­tle­ment ensures fund­ing is in place to com­plete efforts to restore the nat­ur­al areas dam­aged by the ethanol leak,” Madi­gan said in a news release.

The ethanol spilled into a creek, flowed into the Kish­wau­kee Riv­er, and emp­tied into the Rock River.

Two days after the derail­ment, Sauk Val­ley res­i­dents began to notice large num­bers of dead fish wash­ing up on the Rock’s shores. Dead fish were spot­ted along a 54-mile stretch of the riv­er, from the Grand Detour to Prophet­stown areas.

Ethanol trig­gers a bac­te­r­i­al process in riv­er water that leads to oxy­gen depri­va­tion and the sub­se­quent suf­fo­ca­tion of fish. Since the derail­ment, under the over­sight of IEPA, the rail­road com­pa­ny has worked to reme­di­ate the con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed areas.

“This derail­ment caused sig­nif­i­cant impacts to the air, land and water, which required a thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion, sub­stan­tial research and exten­sive envi­ron­men­tal reme­di­a­tion,” Illi­nois EPA Direc­tor Lisa Bon­nett said.

Bon­nett said the set­tle­ment final­ly closed the door on what had been a painstak­ing process.

“The coor­di­nat­ed efforts of state agen­cies have com­plet­ed the inves­ti­ga­tion and cleanup of the release,” Bon­nett said, “and this final con­sent order brings clo­sure to one of Illi­nois’ largest envi­ron­men­tal emergencies.”