FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CIV April 30, 1996 (202) 514-2008 TDD (202) 514-1888 UNITED STATES SUES TO COMPEL CLEANUP OF UNDERGROUND GASOLINE SPILL ON ONONDAGA NATION LANDS NEAR SYRACUSE WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The United States has sued a New York service station and its owner to force them to comply with a federal order requiring them to clean up 10,000 gallons of gasoline that leaked from the station's underground storage tanks. The leaked gasoline polluted an underground source of drinking water used by a family of Native Americans of the Onondaga Nation, near Syracuse, New York. Acute exposure to gasoline, which contains benzene, a carcinogen, can also cause nausea, dizziness, convulsions and coma. The civil complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Syracuse, New York asserts that defendants Oliver R. Hill and the O.R. Hill Fuel Company, Inc. failed to comply with a March 1995 EPA order requiring the clean up on Onondaga Nation lands. In addition, the complaint seeks civil penalties of up to $5000 per day per defendant for each day the EPA order was violated. Mr. Hill was the owner and operator of a now defunct service station located off Route 11 on Onondaga Nation lands just south of Syracuse. (MORE) This environmental enforcement action was announced by Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division; Thomas J. Maroney, United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York; and Jeanne M. Fox, EPA's Regional Administrator in New York City. "This action sends a clear signal that those who ignore EPA orders to clean up the pollution they caused will be punished," said Ms. Schiffer. U.S. Attorney Maroney emphasized that "disregard of environmental laws is intolerable, and the United States will seek substantial penalties and swift injunctive relief to avert such harm." Regional Administrator Fox advised that "exposure to gasoline presents a significant hazard to human health, and EPA is working to help ensure that members of the Onondaga Nation are protected from further health threats pending completion of this cleanup." Due to Mr. Hill's failure to comply with the EPA order to clean up the site, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has undertaken removal of the gasoline and installation of a water treatment system. In addition, affected members of the Onondaga Nation who reside near the site have been provided with an alternate source of water for drinking and other household uses. ### 96-198