Ashland Oil Incorporated, the largest oil refiner in the country at the time of this case analysis, was faced with a great dilemma when one of the tanks constructed by the company itself, ruptured while being filled. On Saturday, January 2nd of 1988, employees of Ashland Oil were filling one of their tanks at the Floreffe terminal outside of Pittsburgh, when the tank collapsed and released approximately three and a half million gallons of petroleum into nearby dikes. Of the initial spill, around three-quarters of a million gallons of petroleum poured into the Monogahela River, located in Floreffe, Pennsylvania. It contaminated drinking sources for over a million people in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Ashland personnel immediately called the National Response Center as required by the Clean Water Act. By late evening, fire officials discovered that the spilled oil had crossed the Ashland property lines on the...