WHITING, Ind. (WOWO): The U.S. Coast Guard‘s completed its investigation into the March 24th BP Whiting Refinery oil spill in Lake Michigan and forwarded its findings to a hearing officer in Washington, D.C.

The hearing officer will decide within 30 days whether BP will face any fines, penalties or corrective actions for the spill. BP can appeal to that hearing officer if it does not agree with the ruling.

Spokesman Scott Dean says BP is still looking how the spill happened, but they‘re now focusing on a connection between a crude distillation unit and the cooling water system. That connection has since been removed.

Cleanup crews contained the spilled oil to a cove between the Whiting refinery and the ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor steelmaking complex in East Chicago.