Passenger Trains > Federal lawsuit: Utah oil company sold bad diesel to Amtrak

Lawsuit asserts Utah company supplied bad fuel to Amtrak passenger trains
Salt Lake Tribune
By TOM HARVEY
Aug 05 2016

> The federal government is suing a Utah company, alleging it sold
> Amtrak contaminated fuel that caused train engines to break down
> after they left Salt Lake City, stranding passengers and costing
> taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
>
> The U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah filed the lawsuit Friday against
> Monroe-based Sevier Valley Oil Co. seeking damages of $242,452 and
> possible fines.
>
> According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for Utah,
> eight trains from the federal rail system broke down in April and May
> of 2011 after refueling in Salt Lake City with diesel supplied by
> Sevier Valley Oil.
>
> Sevier Valley Oil failed to disclose that it had purchased oil from
> Rock Canyon Oil Co. in American Fork, which blends refined used oil
> with diesel, the lawsuit alleges, and that contaminated diesel fuel
> was the cause of the engine failures.
>
> Matt Osborn, the attorney who represents Sevier Valley Oil, said
> there is a dispute about whether his client actually supplied
> contaminated fuel, with the company's records showing the fuel came
> from refineries that still provide products for Amtrak.
>
> "[The company] takes strong exception to the allegation that it
> knowingly would have delivered bad fuel or concealed it after the
> fact," the lawyer said. "If the United States government truly
> believes that, why did it continue to do business with Sevier Valley
> for nearly three years."
>
> Osborn suggested the bad fuel could have come from companies that
> supplied trains in either California or Colorado, but said Sevier
> Valley Oil had not been given access to those records.
>
> In one instance, according to the lawsuit, an Amtrak train was
> stranded without electrical power about 100 miles east of Elko, Nev.,
> after two locomotives began billowing smoke and shooting flames out
> the exhaust.
>
> Amtrak leased a Union Pacific locomotive to tow the train to Elko,
> where passengers were loaded on buses, with some of them taken to a
> hospital because their medical devices had been without power for
> some time.
>
> Amtrak later determined that all of the engine failures were caused
> by fuel contamination, which clogged the locomotives' fuel injectors,
> the lawsuit states. And subsequent fuel analysis showed that the fuel
> in all of the broken-­down locomotives was contaminated with a
> non­fuel product.
>
> Amtrak had to repair all of the damaged locomotives by draining all
> of the contaminated fuel and making several repairs to the
> locomotives.
>
> Amtrak spent $84,124.13 in labor and parts to repair the damaged
> locomotives; $3,370 to drain the contaminated fuel from all of its
> damaged locomotives; and $5,500 to have the contaminated fuel tested,
> the lawsuit states.
>
> Amtrak also had to issue $14,575.83 in refunds or credits to
> passengers as compensation for late trains or missed connections.
> Additionally, Amtrak had paid Sevier $48,081.78 for the substandard
> fuel that damaged its locomotives, the lawsuit states.
>
> Besides reimbursement for costs, fines could be imposed if Sevier
> Valley Oil is found to have violated federal laws.

STATE OF GOOD FUEL

Article:

Lawsuit asserts Utah company supplied bad fuel to Amtrak passenger trains



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/16 09:05 by GenePoon.

It should be interesting to see how this proceeds.  Maybe Amtrak should collect samples of delivered fuel for later testing, on a random basis.  Keeps everyone on their toes.

Sevier Valley Oil Company has been operating under the same family ownership since 1952, and has a clean BBB record.  No complaints.

From failures we've seen, they've been seiilng this stuff System Wide . . .

RailNet802, over
 

If Amtrak is not a government agency, like we are told by so many here on TO, then why is the federal government filing this lawsuit on Amtrak's behalf?

Posted from iPhone

Amtrak is a private corporation owned by the U.S. Government.  And contrary to what many believe, we are (were) not government employees.

I've always considered Amtrak (and the Postal Service, Freddie and Fannie, TVA etc) to be enterprises owned and controlled by the federal government. Amtrak is subject to the government's Office of the Inspector General, the DOT controls its voting shares, etc.  Amtrak's vehicles have federal government license plates, Amtrak doesn't pay state fuel taxes for highway use, and so on.  But it's employees, for the most part, can't bid for jobs in other federal agencies or enterprises.

Amtrak exercises its claim of being a federal entity when it's in the company's interest.

(We should have a FAQ on this subject.  Along with re--opening Tennessee Pass, the George HW Bush locomotive,   and other topics, it comes up every few weeks)

Whatever Amtrak is does not matter - I hope they collect bigtime, and let all the passengers involved know what caused it.

It took 5 years to file this.  

doesn't matter ... the Ambashers will sill blame Amtrak saying the engines should have a bad fuel detection system 

Tominde Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It took 5 years to file this.  

That is odd, but not outrageous.

Depending on the courts involved, Amtrak and the oil company may be required to make a good faith effort to resolve the matter. And, then file a notice of claim (we're gona sue you if you don't do X and Y), and then actually file the suit.. Which will get them back in a sit down and work it out meeting, this time with a court referee.

What is odd to me is that they continued doing business buying fuel for locomotives from the same guy for three more years.  If I truly believe they caused all this damage, no way would I let them anywhere near my locomotive.

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> doesn't matter ... the Ambashers will sill blame
> Amtrak saying the engines should have a bad fuel
> detection system

I wouldn't worry about the AmBashers. If they were genuine bashers, they would have immediately questioned how much Amtrak paid for the fuel compared to other customers buying it for similar use, then speculate that Amtrak tried to be cheap and got what they deserved.

There, I said it first, to render the AmBashers useless, because they didn't come up with this conspiracy first. :-)

I think what Amtrak is seeking sounds pretty light. Hopefully the passengers that were affected medically have a lawsuit of their own against the oil company.

> Sevier Valley Oil Company has been operating under
> the same family ownership since 1952, and has a
> clean BBB record.  No complaints.

The BBB is a joke.  Businesses can pay to have marks removed from their record.  

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Sevier Valley Oil Company has been operating
> under
> > the same family ownership since 1952, and has a
> > clean BBB record.  No complaints.
>
> The BBB is a joke.  Businesses can pay to have
> marks removed from their record.  
>
>  

Sounds like Yelp...

Good quality diesel is getting hard to come by. Seems like no two fuel stations have the same quality 

Yes that's why I suggested periodic testing or quality control certification.

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