Manufacturer Komatsu apologizes after spilling 400 gallons of oil into the Menomonee River, poor communication after to Milwaukee officials

An official at manufacturing giant Komatsu on Friday apologized and told Milwaukee elected leaders that the company should have communicated more quickly in the wake of an oil spill on the Menomonee River in early December.

"The spill itself is something that should never have happened," said John Koetz, Komatsu's president of surface mining. "We should have done a better job communicating more promptly the details to the stakeholders."

Koetz said the company had been focused on communicating with regulators and "putting in place an action plan to address the cleanup."

Immediate calls to local entities could have helped limit the oil's spread and mitigate the damage, city officials and others said during a meeting of the Public Safety and Health Committee Friday.

City officials urged immediate communication with not only the Mayor's Office and Common Council but also the Port of Milwaukee and 911.

Port Director Adam Tindall-Schlicht said the port, other city entities and "community partners" were not notified until about a week after the spill.

While Komatsu had to bring in two contractors to respond, Tindall-Schlicht said the port can act immediately with boats and staff that regularly train for such incidents.

Fire Chief Aaron Lipski also said the fire department should have been contacted, saying by not calling 911 the company missed "an enormous step."

"If you have any sort of material release, please call us. Doesn't matter how big or how small, please call us," he said. "This could all have been avoided."

Spill happened as oil was transferred between tanks

The Dec. 3 spill at Komatsu's facility on West National Avenue allowed about 400 gallons of oil to enter a storm drain that goes to the Menomonee River, the state Department of Natural Resources said previously.

The spill happened while oil was being transferred between two tanks, Koetz told the committee. The DNR and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were alerted that day, he said.

Efforts to clean up the oil have included launching three or four boats onto the water each day along with a crew on land running a "vacuum truck" to get rid of the sheens and oil pockets while groups of employees have walked the shores to find any areas where residue remains, Koetz said.

Now with colder weather and ice, he said crews are continuing to inspect the water visually every day, clean up oil spots when possible. They've had to stop sending out boats because of the ice but will send them out again if it's needed and the weather cooperates, he said.

He said in the month since the spill the company had pulled more than 13,000 gallons of water and oil sheen and used about 145 booms to absorb the oil sheens.

Between 90% and 95% of the visible oil sheen has been cleaned up, he estimated.

Their steps to prevent such a spill in the future have included reinforcing existing protocols, increasing employee training on new standards and installing additional physical barriers, he said.

The company's new headquarters in the Harbor District south of downtown also "includes multiple levels of containment and controls for liquids on site," Koetz said. There are also no direct storm water connections inside the new campus.

Concern about long-term impacts

Riverkeeper Cheryl Nenn said the Milwaukee Riverkeeper organization did not find out about the spill until four days after it happened and expressed concern about oil getting out into the river system itself.

"We're obviously concerned about long-term impacts on water quality and wildlife from that and how we're going to be able to clean it up in the future," she said.

The organization wants to work with Komatsu to find ways to defray the costs of any cleanup and environmental damage, Nenn said.

Her organization also has additional questions about the spill, she said, noting it was difficult to contain because it quickly expanded to a large geographic area.

Milwaukee Riverkeepers would have been available to help had they known about the spill, she said, ideally limiting the spread of oil and the impacts to water and wildlife.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Komatsu apologizes for oil spill in Menomonee River in Milwaukee