News

Colonial Pipeline, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, transports an average of 93 million gallons of refined petroleum products each day through an underground pipeline that stretches from Texas to the New York Harbor – and passes through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

The government found Colonial violated the Clean Water Act when the company’s pipeline corrosion, mechanical damage, and operator error resulted in the release of approximately 1.45 million gallons of oil and other petroleum products into the environment. Oil spills from the pipeline damaged a variety of aquatic systems in numerous rivers, streams, and wetlands. In one spill, more than 950,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the Reedy River in South Carolina, killing 35,000 fish and other species of wildlife, and dispersing more than 34 miles downstream. An ecosystem can take years to recover from damage caused by an oil spill. Other spills resolved in this action occurred in Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and North Carolina.

Today’s settlement requires Colonial to designate its entire pipeline as potentially affecting “high consequence areas.” This subjects the entire 5,500-mile pipeline to the pipeline integrity regulations of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS). Under the terms of the settlement, Colonial is also required to:

Inspect its corrosion prevention system along the entire pipeline system every five years;
Repair problems detected in the corrosion prevention system to meet the standards developed by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE);
Maintain its right-of-ways, including mowing and removing debris;
Have personnel on-site when utility or other excavation is occurring within five feet of the pipeline;
Survey and inspect the pipeline where it crosses water;
Address areas of the pipeline that are exposed or insufficiently buried; and
Pay for an independent monitoring contractor, approved by EPA, to ensure that the company incorporates these requirements into its existing programs and then implements the requirements.
“This settlement is another example of EPA’s ‘smart enforcement’ approach, illustrating how an enforcement decision translates into the very real results of cleaner air, purer water and better protected land. The combined efforts of EPA and DOJ successfully address environmental damage and prevent future harm to public health and the environment,” said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman.

“Both Attorney General Ashcroft and I are committed to maintaining the integrity of our nation’s industrial infrastructure, such as oil pipelines, as a critical priority for the Justice Department,” said Tom Sansonetti, the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Today’s settlement sends the message that we will vigorously pursue violations of environmental laws that subject our citizens and our environment to the potentially catastrophic consequences of a breakdown of that infrastructure.”

Separately Colonial Pipeline Company pled guilty in 1999 to criminal charges in connection with the 1996 Reedy River, S.C., spill. The company was ordered to pay a $7 million fine and serve a five-year term of probation.

In addition to this settlement, the United States has taken action recently against several other pipeline companies for oil spill violations. In January of this year, the United States and the State of Washington reached civil settlements with Olympic Pipe Line Company and Shell Pipeline Company that included penalties totaling $15 million plus injunctive and other relief for violations leading to a fatal pipeline rupture in Bellingham, Wash., in 1999. In December 2002, Olympic and Shell entered pleas and agreed to pay $21 million in criminal fines for criminal violations arising from the same incident.

Today’s settlement agreement has been lodged at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.