Secaucus Diesel Spill May Have Run 6 Hours Before Equinix Noticed; State Was Called More Than 7 Hours In, Pou Letter Shows

SECAUCUS — Diesel fuel may have been overflowing at Equinix’s NY2 data center on Hartz Way for about six hours on Sept. 11 before a security officer noticed it, and the state environmental hotline wasn’t called until 7:43 p.m., according to documents Rep. Nellie Pou (D-9th Dist.) released Wednesday.

Pou made the findings public in an Oct. 14 letter to Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli. She attached an Oct. 9 response from New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Ed Potosnak and an Oct. 12 incident report Equinix sent her office.

How much spilled

Equinix’s report estimates about 5,200 gallons overflowed a generator tank’s secondary containment at 275 Hartz Way. Much of it went into the site’s stormwater drains and from there into drainage channels that feed a tributary of the Hackensack River. Pou’s Oct. 2 letter to NJDEP had cited roughly 5,500 gallons. Her new letter says “over 5,000.”

As of Oct. 9, cleanup crews had recovered about 4,000 gallons from the storm sewer line and drainage canals, Equinix said. The company said more diesel stayed in the containment area, soaked into absorbent pads or stuck to equipment and surfaces, and is expected to evaporate. Pou wrote that “a full accounting of the remaining fuel and cleanup is still outstanding.”

The timeline

Based on Equinix’s report and NJDEP’s response:

• About 12:20 p.m.: Debris jammed two valves on a small generator day tank (about 150 gallons) during automatic fuel polishing, and the overflow may have begun. Equinix said this is its earliest estimate, based on its records.
• About 4 p.m.: Fuel polishing stopped and the overflow ended, according to Equinix.
• About 6:36 p.m.: A security officer on routine rounds found the spill. Equinix wrote that an on-duty engineer “evidently had not recognized or taken action” on electronic alerts the system should have sent.
• 6:42 p.m.: The fuel lines were isolated and the generator was locked in standby.
• 7:06 p.m.: Spill kits were deployed. 7:11 p.m.: Equinix alerted its emergency contractor.
• 7:43 p.m.: Equinix reported the spill to the NJDEP hotline, according to the state’s incident report. The Secaucus Fire Department arrived around the same time.
• 7:45–8:10 p.m.: NJDEP’s communications center verbally notified Secaucus dispatch, the state said.
• About 9:45 p.m.: Equinix’s contractor arrived. About 10:45 p.m.: NJDEP’s emergency response team arrived.
• Sept. 12, 2:48 a.m.: NJDEP’s team on scene reported the release “contained.”
• Sept. 12, 6:07 a.m.: The Secaucus clerk and local health department received electronic notice from NJDEP.

The start time is still disputed in the record. NJDEP wrote that the hotline report Equinix phoned in listed the discharge as beginning at 6:09 p.m. The 12:20 p.m. estimate comes from Equinix’s later report. Pou’s “more than seven hours” figure counts from that earlier estimate.

Below the state’s “major facility” threshold

NJDEP inspected NY2 on Sept. 18. Its preliminary finding is that the site stores less than 200,000 gallons of petroleum products, so it isn’t a “major facility” under the state’s discharge-prevention rules (N.J.A.C. 7:1E). Those rules require things like impermeable secondary containment, high-level tank alarms with cutoffs, people physically present during tank filling, and spill-prevention and cleanup plans. Smaller sites may still fall under the federal EPA’s spill-prevention program, the agency said.

NJDEP said NY2 counts as one facility together with Equinix’s adjacent NY5 and NY6 buildings. Once the planned NY10 is built next door, the combined site will meet the “major facility” definition. NJDEP also said that, after a self-report, it found Equinix’s nearby NY3 and NY4 data centers together qualify as a major facility, with more than 200,000 gallons of storage between them.

The Hackensack River

NJDEP said its emergency team saw no evidence during daily inspections that the diesel reached the Hackensack River. The agency said it is aware of discolored vegetation along the river’s southeastern edge, downstream of the tributary, but that the cause is unclear and it “cannot attribute it to the spill at this time.” A Licensed Site Remediation Professional hired by Equinix will investigate how far the spill spread, and that report will be public, NJDEP said.

NJDEP did not give an end date for its investigation. It said it will “evaluate issuing enforcement actions to the extent appropriate” based on the results.

What Equinix says it changed

Equinix said it disabled the fuel system for the generator involved, is replacing all of the site’s tank valves, and told all of its U.S. data centers to stop automatic fuel polishing until further notice. Polishing will be done only manually under direct oversight. Pou’s letter, citing a Patch report, says Equinix also appears to have fired a facility site engineer. Equinix’s report to Pou doesn’t address that.