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The state and Neville Chemical Co. have an extra week to try for an out-of-court settlement in a case where each side accuses the other of causing an oil spill in the Ohio River.

Environmental Hearing Board Judge Thomas Renwand moved the start of the trial from Wednesday to April 11 to allow for settlement talks. The judge refused to comment on the case. The lawyers for the Department of Environmental Protection and Neville Chemical couldn't be reached for comment.

The DEP sued the company on Nov. 3, 2003, after Neville Chemical had failed for about 18 months to stop petroleum compounds from seeping off its property into the Ohio River. Neville Chemical uses petroleum to make hydrocarbon resins and admits it has been polluting the groundwater under its plant for at least 25 years, according to court documents.

Neville Chemical contends that the spill resulted from DEP's orders to shut down a contaminated well that had prevented pollution from reaching the river.

The state agency repeatedly has told the company to design and implement a plan to stop and clean up the pollution. While Neville Chemical has installed some pollution controls, the DEP says the controls have failed to halt the spread of the polluted water.

On July 25, 2000, the agency ordered Neville Chemical to quit using Water Well 4 as a source of cooling water by Dec. 31, 2001. Neville was pulling water from the well to use in its cooling pipes, which discharge the water into the Ohio River.

The DEP's lawsuit says that company data shows the well has been contaminated with petroleum compounds since 1991. Consequently, the agency contends the company has been discharging polluted water into the river.

The lawsuit deals with what happened after the company shut down the well on Dec. 20, 2001.

Water Well 4 is about 95 feet from the main channel of the Ohio River. When the company pumped water from the well, it pulled contaminated water away from the river.

On May 1, 2002, five months after the company quit using the well, an oil slick started spreading into the river from Neville Chemical's property.

The company contends the DEP knew this would happen and deliberately ordered the company to shut down the well to cause the oil slick that would force Neville Chemical to undertake a costly and ineffective cleanup plan.

The DEP contends that it warned Neville Chemical three times before the slick appeared that the company needed to look at how the well's shutdown affected the flow of polluted groundwater under the plant.

The agency is seeking $17 million in fines against Neville Chemical for failing to prevent the oil spill, failing to stop it once the spill started and pumping polluted water from the well into the river.

Dan Giovannitti, a public relations specialist hired by Neville Chemical Co., said the fine would cost Pittsburgh more than 300 jobs, and even a smaller fine the agency proposed in 2003 would bankrupt the company.

"A $2 million fine will close the company," he said.

Neville Chemical is a privately owned company. Giovannitti said he couldn't provide any financial records to confirm that $2 million would bankrupt the manufacturer.

DEP spokesman Kurt Knaus said the agency isn't commenting on the company's claims because the lawsuit is still pending.

In previous statements, however, DEP Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty has said the agency isn't interested in the company's money. Instead, the agency is using the fines to compel the company to obey DEP orders for the first time in about two decades, she said.

A citizens group, the Neville Island Good Neighbor Committee, has frequently criticized Neville Chemical for polluting the surrounding area. Janet Strahosky, an Avalon resident and member of the group, said she doesn't feel much sympathy for the company's claim that the fines would bankrupt it.

"Well, maybe they should have been taking care of their business all along," she said.

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