RAF MILDENHALL, England — The trial began Monday for a British company accused of spilling thousands of gallons of fuel here in 2007 during a drilling gone awry.

T. Clarke (Midlands) Ltd. was doing contract work at the base on April 20, 2007, when an underground drill punctured a JP8 fuel line, releasing about 44,000 gallons of jet fuel into the ground.

The company is charged with violating the U.K.’s Water Resources Act as the base sits atop a major water table. The trial is being held at Ipswich Crown Court.

Anglian Water — one of the biggest water service providers in Britain — set up measures following the spill to ensure that the jet fuel didn’t reach anyone’s tap water, according to spokespeople with the British Environment Agency, which is bringing charges against the company.

The trial is expected to last all week, according to the EA’s Rita Penman.

Spills of this magnitude are rare at U.S. Air Forces in Europe bases, Capt. Davina Petermann, a USAFE spokeswoman, said last year in an e-mail. There have been four spills of more than 10,000 gallons in the past decade, she said.

Before the 2007 Mildenhall incident, about 10,000 gallons were spilled in "an uncontrolled fuel release" in 2004 at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. A leaking transfer line was subsequently repaired, according to Petermann.

More than 10,000 gallons were spilled at Morón Air Base, Spain, in 2003 when a valve in the pump house broke during fuel-pumping.

Between 60,000 and 80,000 gallons of fuel were spilled in 2001 at Turkey’s Yumurtalik Installation, a satellite base that falls under Incirlik. One of the main underground storage tanks was severely damaged during a ship-to-shore fuel transfer, Petermann said.