Demolition begins on steam heat plant that caused oil spill

Workers have begun tearing down a closed steam heat plant on North Washington Avenue in Scranton that leaked fuel oil into the Lackawanna River in July.

Late last week, demolition started on the northeast wall of the facility owned by Dunmore businessmen Louis and Dominick DeNaples. They plan to tear down the entire complex, including the tank where the leak originated.

The plant once piped steam heat to most buildings in downtown Scranton. In 2006, the state Public Utility Commission allowed then-operator Community Central Energy Corp. to stop service and shut down after financial difficulties.

No one is sure how much No. 6 fuel oil leaked from the aboveground storage tank, puddled on-site, flowed into the sewers and eventually reached the Lackawanna River through its combined sewer overflow below the Poplar Street bridge.

About 71,000 gallons remained in the 508,000-gallon tank when a contractor drained it. State environmental regulators blamed a missing brass valve for the leak.

In November, the state Department of Environmental Protection announced it would fine the DeNaples brothers a civil penalty for using an improperly certified contractor to handle the tank and for storing contaminated soil in a partially uncovered pile.

DEP has not yet set the penalty amount because it let the owners extend the due date for a report on the sites environmental status from mid-January to the end of April, spokeswoman Colleen Connolly said.

The new deadline was necessary after a delay in obtaining equipment to remove the fuel tank, she said. The owners still must remove it and clean the contaminated soil.

Because it is more practical to remove the tank and complete the soil cleanup as part of the characterization process, the extension request was reasonable and approved, she said in an email.

The report will include an ecological receptor evaluation that will address the spills influence on the river, she said.

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Demolition begins on steam heat plant that caused oil spill