DEP orders railroad to report oil shipments
Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection has sent a notice of violation to Pan Am Railways, which already has missed two deadlines for reporting how much crude oil it shipped through Maine during April and May.
The Associated Press reported that the DEP’s violation notice asks Pan Am to report its oil transports and pay the required fees for April and May or explain why it has failed to do so. The company has until Aug. 6 to respond.
Pan Am Executive Vice President Cynthia Scarano told the AP the company is not filing reports because Maine law requires reports only for refined oil, not crude oil. From January through March, the railroad carried 47.9 million gallons of oil across Maine and paid more than $34,000 in fees that go to the state's oil spill cleanup fund.
Legislators this spring changed the law so it now includes crude oil, but the law doesn't go into effect until Oct. 1, the AP reported.
The reporting delay comes as oil imports have surged in the first three months of the year for Pan Am and, more recently, as investigators probe the July 6 crash of a 72-car oil train on the separate Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway line through Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, that has left around 60 presumed dead.
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