A Maine real estate firm is facing fines that exceed $10,000 after an employee deliberately poured hundreds of gallons of motor oil onto the ground at a closed auto garage in Brunswick.

According to the Portland Press Herald, the spill happened in May, and a bystander watched as an employee used a forklift to move a large tank of stored oil outside. The worker overturned the container to empty its contents in a parking area and then returned it to the building on Pleasant Street.

The dumping site sits close to the Androscoggin River and above the town's water supply. When state environmental officials arrived, they found three additional destroyed oil tanks in a trash bin and signs of another spill at a different location.

Cleanup crews had to haul away more than 34 tons of polluted soil, along with contaminated groundwater. The spilled oil, totaling 275 gallons, spread across an area of about 500 square feet. All the polluted material went to a disposal facility.

The property owner, 157 Pleasant LLC, learned about the incident from the employee responsible. Company manager Stephen Goodrich fired the worker after seeing video footage that a bystander recorded.

"We're not ordinarily handling hazardous materials of this type," said Goodrich, whose firm has worked on other redevelopment projects in Portland. He says the footage "horrified" him.

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Maine's Department of Environmental Protection required the company to pay about $5,000 in penalties plus another $5,600 to cover the state's response costs. The department noted that Goodrich provided full cooperation during the investigation.

State rules require property owners to report oil spills in under two hours. The witness called authorities about two hours after the dumping occurred, with Goodrich reporting it around 30 minutes later.

The worker who caused the spill left the site without attempting any cleanup.

The incident demonstrates the power of community action. The bystander might not have been able to prevent the oil dumping, but they might have stopped future illegal chemical spills from the irresponsible employee. That will go a long way toward protecting the local environment and essential water supplies.