State water-quality enforcers have issued a $48,000 fine against the owner of a Colusa trucking firm for a 4,800- gallon ammonia spill that killed more than 3,500 fish in irrigation canals that flow into the Sacramento River.
The damage could have been curtailed significantly had Frank Alvin Rogers or his employees immediately notified authorities, according to the state Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board complaint filed Monday against Rogers and his firm, Rogers Trucking Co.
"What happened was an accident, but they did not notify anybody, so the problem became much worse," said Wendy Wyels, environmental program manager with the board.
Authorities did not learn of the April 25, 2007, incident until two days later, when workers with Reclamation District 108 noticed hundreds of dead carp and catfish lodged against the screens of an irrigation pump in the canal, according to the water board's administrative civil liability complaint.
State Department of Fish and Game officials said they charged Rogers on Monday with polluting state waters "with a substance or material deleterious to fish, plant life or bird life" and engaging in unfair business practices.
The spill occurred just after the driver of a Rogers delivery truck had filled a 6,800-gallon fertilizer holding tank at the edge of a farmer's field with ammonium hydroxide. As the driver departed, a rear wheel struck a 2-inch valve on the polyurethane tank, causing the release, according to a Fish and Game warden's report of the incident.
Rogers told the driver to call immediately for a replacement valve, the report said, but by then, all but 2,000 gallons had flowed into the farmer's irrigation ditch and on to the canal system.
The concentrations of ammonia were as much as 21,000 times higher than the limit considered safe for aquatic life, state tests of water samples showed.
"No effort was made by the discharger (Rogers) to clean the waterways," the water board noted in its complaint.
Call The Bee's Chris Bowman, (916) 321-1069.
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