Even in a natural disaster situation you may be responsible for reporting spills or damage.

You or your organization may have legal requirements for reporting spills or for taking action, depending on the spill.

State Department of Environmental Conservation investigators have reported spills and leaks at the property, including leaks from diesel generators.

Other sections require facilities to report spills of listed substances above a threshold reporting quantity (reportable quantities), and the quantities of chemicals stored above a specified threshold planning quantity.

Federal officials said it had taken them months to put the case together, partly because the company did business under many different names, and when it reported spills, sometimes understated their volume by 90 percent.

The auditors said the contractors deliberately bypassed safety measures, turned off monitors and alarms, falsified documents, did not report spills, dumped hazardous wastes on the ground and illegally sent waste from a pit contaminated with plutonium to a public landfill.

Mr. Hook had a long record of questionable conduct, Mr. Nucciarone contended, citing incidents in which he was accused of castigating employees for trying to report spills or refusing a request to buy protective gear for workers assigned to enter contaminated buildings.

They point out that between 1998 and 1999 there were 1,800 to 2,000 in the state reported industrial and commercial spills and that the number of contaminated wells in the state is steadily increasing.