BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 11, 2021
The company that spilled a literal ton of plastic into Penobscot Bay has agreed to pay the state a $17,800 fine. This consent agreement between the State of Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Sprague Operating Resources LLC also included revisions by Sprague to some of its terminal operations to reduce the risk of spills in the future. The timeline of Sprague’s failure to quickly notify the state of this spill is egregious, and warranted a greater fine. When the stakes are as high as protecting Maine’s coast and other valuable natural resources, the penalty must match the severity of the crime in order to deter similar offenses. A $17,800 fine, for a multimillion dollar company that dragged its feet reporting this kind of incident, doesn’t cut it.