The Nation : Firm to Pay for Contamination Cleanup

Ashland Oil Co. reached agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up ground water and soil contaminated by last January’s rupture of a 4-million gallon tank of diesel fuel at the firm’s facility outside Pittsburgh, Pa. The EPA said the agreement, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh, obligates Ashland to repair the environmental damage but does not free the firm from possible civil or criminal penalties in connection with the rupture, which spilled 1 million gallons of toxic oil into the source of drinking water for 500,000 people. Meanwhile, a task force appointed by Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey issued a report concluding that the spill “could have been and should have been averted� and called for a maximum fine and possible criminal prosecution of Ashland.