$48,000 fine for fish kill in Colusa

A Colusa businessman has been fined $48,000 for his company's role in a chemical spill that polluted a drainage canal last year.

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board levied the administrative civil liability penalty against Frank A. Rogers and his Rogers Trucking Co.

Multiple phone calls to Rogers' office and home were not returned.

Rogers has until Dec. 17 to pay the fine or request a hearing before the board.

Wendy Wyels, program manager for the water board, said the fine stems from an April 2007 incident near Tule Road.

"It's a fairly small fine for the magnitude of the impact, but under the water code, it was the maximum we could assess," Wyels said,

A driver working for Rogers accidentally caused a spill of about 6,800 gallons of aqua ammonia, commonly used in fertilizer, into an irrigation ditch connected to the Reclamation District 108 canal system, Wyels said.

Officials learned of the contamination about two days later when dead fish surfaced in the canal system, Wyels said.

The board estimated more than 3,500 fish and other aquatic organisms died as a result of the spill.

"The spill was an accident," Wyels said, "but (Rogers) had a responsibility to report it to authorities and didn't."

Wyels said the impact of the spill could have been significantly reduced, had authorities been immediately notified.

The district could have turned off its pumps near the spill point, which would have confined the spill to a smaller area, Wyels said.

Lewis Bair, general manager for the district, said the driver damaged a valve on a storage tank, which was located in a field about 30 feet from the drainage canal.

The tank leaked onto the field and into the drainage canal, which directly feeds the Sacramento River, Bair said.

"It's an unfortunate situation where a driver made a mistake," Bair said. "But they're not biologists. There was no malicious intent."

Bair said Rogers was forthcoming when contacted and voluntarily reimbursed the district its cleanup costs.

Rogers paid $5,992.52, according to the district.

Bair said the dead fish, mostly carp and suckerfish, were transported to a Sacramento rendering facility. He said the board's estimate of 3,500 dead fish seemed too high.

There has been no long-term affect to the canal waters and said the fish population is still thriving in the area, he said.

The board said Rogers received financial benefit by not training his drivers on chemical spill procedures and by not supplying his trucks with spill containment kits.

"We hope other trucking companies will take notice and train their drivers to report spills when they happen," Wyels said.

Contact Rob Parsons at 458-2121 or rparsons@tcnpress.com.