Spill

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice announced a settlement with Enbridge Energy LP and several related Enbridge companies to resolve claims stemming from two separate oil spills in Marshall, MI and Romeoville, IL, in 2010. Enbridge agreed to spend at least $110 million on measures to prevent spills and improve operations across nearly 2,000 miles of its pipeline system in the Great Lakes area, and to pay $62 million in civil penalties for Clean Water Act violations, the agencies said. Enbridge will also pay more than $5.4 million in unreimbursed costs incurred by the government in connection with cleanup of the Marshall spill, as well as all future removal costs incurred by the government in connection with the spill. In addition to payments required under the proposed settlement, Enbridge has already reimbursed the government for $57.8 million in cleanup costs from the Marshall spill and $650,000 for cleanup costs from the Romeoville spill, and reportedly incurred costs in excess of $1 billion for required cleanup activities relating to the spills, the agencies said. Enbridge was held responsible for the discharge of at least 20,082 bbls of oil in Marshall and another 6,427 bbls in Romeoville. In 2012, the National Transportation Safety Board said the 30-inch diameter pipeline rupture and spill in the Kalamazoo River in Marshall was the most expensive onshore oil spill in U.S. history (see Daily GPI,July 16, 2012).

An oil pipeline spill from an accidentally opened valve in Ventura County in Southern California last Thursday spewed 25,000 to 30,000 gallons of crude down a canyon, prompting renewed concerns in California where fossil fuel infrastructure breakdowns have become all-too-frequent.

A semi-truck hauling oil and natural gas wastewater through Southeast Ohio left the road and crashed into a field, spilling 5,000 gallons of the fluid into a stream that empties into a drinking water reservoir, state regulators said Thursday.

MarkWest Energy Partners LPsaid late last Friday that remediation efforts are still ongoing in Wetzel County, WV, nearly a week after the company discovered that chemicals had leaked from its Mobley Processing Facility (see Shale Daily, Feb. 23). Initially, the state said 3,000 gallons of heat transfer oil, identified as Dowtherm MX, had leaked from a failed valve at the plant. MarkWest confirmed Friday that 260 gallons of the fluid was released. The oil breached the facility’s storm water retention system and made its way into the tributary of a creek, jeopardizing the town of Pine Grove’s freshwater treatment facility. The town has since switched to an alternate water source and MarkWest said the cleanup effort is still ongoing. Water samples have shown that amounts of the fluid in the creek have rapidly declined, the company said. The Mobley facility is located in Smithfield, WV. It is a 520 MMcf/d cryogenic processing facility.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP continued to lead environmental remediation efforts in Wetzel County, WV, on Tuesday, three days after the company discovered that 3,000 gallons of chemicals had leaked from its Mobley Processing Facility.

The safety director for Plains All American Pipeline was in the hot seat Friday during a joint California legislative committee hearing looking into the company's handling of an oil spill along Santa Barbara and other Southern California beaches May 19.

The safety director for Plains All American Pipeline was in the hot seat Friday during a joint California legislative committee hearing looking into the company’s handling of an oil spill along Santa Barbara and other Southern California beaches May 19.

Five injection wells near Youngstown, OH, that were thought to be the source of a roughly 2,000 gallon spill of oil and other waste into a pond and wetland have for now been ruled out, with state investigators attributing the spill to winter run-off from a nearby salvage yard.

BP plc’s claims that the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) has returned to pre-Macondo well blowout condition are “inappropriate as well as premature” because the largest offshore spill in U.S. history still is being assessed, federal and state trustees overseeing the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) said.