EPA fines World’s Largest Truck Stop for alleged clean water act violations

WALCOTT, Iowa (KWQC) - The Iowa 80 World’s Largest Truck Stop has been fined by the EPA due to Clean Water Act violations.

According to EPA documents, the truck stop is ordered to pay $204,142 in fines to the EPA.

Complaint documents state the fine was due to a failure to prepare and implement a Facility Response Plan, and failure to prepare and implement a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan in full.

According to Heather DeBaillie, Vice President of Operations and Marketing, the truck stop had hired Shive Hattery to write these plans for many years. When the EPA inspected the report, it was pointed out that the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan was missing information, and Shive Hattery staff had not signed it.

The plan has to be signed by a licensed engineer.

DeBaillie said the truck stop has since hired a new firm to write the SPCC and now has the finished document approved by the EPA.

“We take environmental safety and compliance very seriously. It is always our intent to be a good steward of our natural resources and a good member of our community,” DeBaillie said.

The EPA website says the FRP rule requires certain facilities that store and use oil are required to prepare and submit an FRP. An FRP demonstrates a facility’s preparedness to respond to a worst-case oil discharge.

The Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure rule is to help facilities prevent a discharge of oil into navigable waters or adjoining shorelines, according to the EPA website. The SPCC rule requires facilities to develop, maintain, and implement an oil spill prevention plan, called an SPCC Plan. These plans help facilities prevent oil spills, as well as control a spill should one occur.

According to DeBaillie, the fines are not related to a spill or leak of any kind. The truck stop has always had a secondary containment around our two big tanks that would retain all diesel on-site in the event of a catastrophic tank failure.