CH2M Hill Hanford Group will spend $30,800 to resolve a new fine issued by the Environmental Protection Agency against the Department of Energy and its contractor for delays in notification of a radioactive tank waste spill last summer.

EPA announced the fine Monday, just four days after DOE fined CH2M Hill $302,500 for nuclear safety violations related to the spill. Including a settlement of an earlier fine imposed by the state of Washington and pay withheld by DOE, the spill has cost CH2M Hill almost $1.2 million.

Under the EPA fine, CH2M Hill will pay a cash penalty of $6,800 and spend $24,000 to buy equipment for the Tri-County Hazardous Materials Response Team, including air tanks and computers that can map plumes of hazardous gases.

That is in addition to a new truck and other equipment CH2M Hill agreed to buy for the agency in partial settlement of the earlier state fine.

EPA issued the latest fine in response to DOE and CH2M Hill's delay in notifying the National Response Center of the July 27 spill of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste. Work was under way to pump waste from Tank S-102, one of Hanford's old single-shell tanks, into a newer double-shell tank when waste backed up into a water line and ruptured it.

EPA puts the estimated size of the spill at 114 gallons while DOE estimates it at 85 gallons of waste and water.

If at least three pints of waste from a tank spill, notification of the National Response Center is required within 15 minutes, said Suzanne Powers of EPA. The center describes itself as the sole federal point of contact for chemical spills and coordinates a national response and communications system that can provide help ranging from evacuation to chemical sampling.

The spill occurred about 2:15 a.m. and within about five minutes workers were recording unusually high radiation readings but failed to identify the cause as a spill, Powers said. At about 10:30 a.m., workers found the spill on the ground, she said.

The National Response Center was not notified until 1:29 p.m., she said, and then inadequate information was provided. Reporting requirements call for detailed information such as how much material was released and potential hazards, she said.

"They didn't understand emergency notification," Powers said.

Potential fines increase for late reporting up to a maximum fine for reporting the spill two hours after it happened, she said.

EPA originally considered a fine of $32,500 but reduced that to the cash settlement and equipment for local emergency responders. Eighty percent of the cost of the equipment being purchased by CH2M Hill is counted toward the penalty, bringing the penalty amount to $26,000.

Hanford fines are sometimes settled by allowing agencies to pay for projects that benefit the environment in the Tri-City or Hanford area, called supplemental environmental projects. But that option usually costs contractors more.

"CH2M Hill didn't have to do this and it's benefiting the whole region," said Mike Spring, board chairman of the Tri-County Hazardous Materials Response Team. "Without this kind of help, Tri-County HazMat would not be as prepared as we need."

The agency has grown to respond to hazardous leaks and spills in Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla and Yakima counties.

Now it lacks enough tanks with a one-hour supply of compressed air for use with respirators, but the settlement will allow it to buy eight more.

It also will buy two laptop computers that hook up to weather equipment that measures factors such as wind speed and direction and humidity. The computers use the data to predict where plumes of hazardous chemicals may travel in the air, helping make evacuation and other decisions.

"We're pleased that this settlement will help to strengthen the emergency management response capabilities in our community," Shirley Olinger, manager of the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection, said in a statement. She also said that since the spill DOE has strengthened its operation, notification and emergency management.

CH2M Hill is responsible for the full cost of the fine, with no money coming from federal cleanup dollars.