Duke Energy Says Thousands Of Gallons Of Fuel Oil Spills Into Ohio River

(RTTNews) - Electric utility Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) said Tuesday that at about 11:15 p.m. Monday, during a routine transfer of fuel oil at the W.C. Beckjord Station, about 5,000 gallons of fuel was inadvertently discharged into the Ohio River. However, the release was stopped by 11:30 p.m.

The company stated that it notified Local, state and environmental agencies, and Coast Guard about the incident. Northern Kentucky Water District and Greater Cincinnati Water Works also were notified to take appropriate action.

"We notified state and local authorities of the incident and have been working with them throughout the overnight hours. We have cleanup crews on site that are identifying the appropriate actions that will be needed to remediate," said Chuck Whitlock, Duke Energy president of Midwest Commercial Generation and vice president of gas operations.

Beckjord Station is located in Clermont County, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati.

Duke Energy owns 100 percent of units 1 through 5 (units 1 through 4 have already been retired), and 37.5 percent of unit 6.

Dayton Power & Light owns 50 percent of unit 6 and American Electric Power owns 12.5 percent. The station also has four combustion turbine generating units which burn #2 fuel oil. The combustion turbine generating units are primarily used for generating electric during periods of high demand or emergency situations.

The station is dispatched into PJM. Duke Energy Ohio anticipates it will retire all six coal-fired units by January 1, 2015.