Attorney General Tong Announces Settlement with Soundview Transportation Over Largest Oil Spill in Connecticut History

03/19/2025

Attorney General Tong Announces Settlement with Soundview Transportation Over Largest Oil Spill in Connecticut History

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong announced today a series of penalties and payments totaling $350,000 to be paid by Soundview Transportation following the November 2022 oil tanker accident in Norfolk, resulting in the largest gasoline spill in Connecticut history. In addition to the penalties, Soundview is fully responsible for the ongoing remediation and clean-up of the site, costing millions of dollars.

Today’s settlement also addresses two smaller spills, one in Milford on March 16, 2023 and

the other at the Gateway Montville terminal on September 13, 2023. Both of those spills have been remediated.

“Soundview’s tanker accident resulted in the largest oil spill in Connecticut history—with severe disruption to neighbors and significant environmental harm. Soundview has taken responsibility for the ongoing remediation, and the state continues to closely monitor that work. Today’s $350,000 settlement, including a substantial penalty, sends a clear message that those who violate our environmental laws will be held accountable,” said Attorney General Tong.

In the early morning of November 5, 2022, a tanker truck leased and operated by Soundview hit a utility pole and a fire hydrant on Route 44 in Norfolk, in the vicinity of 97 Greenwoods Road East. The truck rolled over and slid several hundred feet down the road, emitting sparks and spilling gasoline through a breach in the tank. The truck’s full cargo of 8,200 gallons of gasoline spilled out, contaminating the yards of nearby residences and traveling through the town’s stormwater sewer system into nearby surface and groundwaters.

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Emergency Response Unit and the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department responded to the spill, ultimately with the assistance of twenty other mutual aid companies. Faced with the likely threat of an explosion, the Norfolk First Selectman declared a local state of emergency, Eversource shut off power to the area, and Aquarion was contacted to ensure adequate water pressure to supply any firefighting efforts. The concentration of toxic and potentially explosive gasoline chemicals, including volatile organic compounds, led authorities to immediately evacuate all nearby residents – at least six residences worth of people – and the nearby elementary school. Residents were not allowed to return to their homes until that evening, when the threat of an explosion had subsided.

The initial response to the spill, and ongoing remediation efforts, required substantial removal of contaminated material. The ground within the two nearest properties was saturated by gasoline and had to be excavated 9 feet deep, resulting in the removal of approximately 600 tons of contaminated soil. Vacuum trucks have removed approximately 90 thousand gallons of contaminated water.

In addition to responsibility for that ongoing cleanup and remediation, today’s settlement requires Soundview to pay $350,000 to the state, including a $100,000 civil penalty, a $200,000 payment to compensate DEEP for costs associated with overseeing remediation, and a $50,000 payment to the Office of the Attorney General’s Consumer Fund to support state enforcement actions on behalf of Connecticut consumers.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Schulz and Deputy Associate Attorney General Matthew Levine, Chief of the Environment Section, assisted the Attorney General in this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

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Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

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