Another Pipeline, Another Leak

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

14 April 14

ccasionally, as we consider the fate of our old friend, the Keystone XL pipeline, the continent-spanning death funnel that will bring the world's dirtiest fossil fuel through the heart of some of the richest farmland in the world, we should miss no opportunity to remind ourselves that pipelines leak, and that the people who own them do not care a great deal whether they do or not, because that's just a sunk cost of doing the pipeline business. This is a rule so hard and fast that the fact that, when a pipeline leaks and does extensive damage, it doesn't even qualify as a national news story any more.

For example, Hamilton County, Ohio has been glopped up for almost a month from a spill that occurred in the middle of...wait for it...a wildlife refuge.

The cost for cleanup could be steep. Crews will need to "build a road" to get heavy machinery into the spill area, a part of the Oak Glen Nature Preserve, to vacuum up the oil and dig up contaminated soil. With rain in the forecast, a containment structure will be built to capture oil and keep it from reaching the Great Miami River, just some 500 feet away, or spreading out on the site, said Heather Lauer, a spokeswoman for the Ohio EPA.

In other words, they have to do some more environmental damage to keep the original environmental damage from doing some more environmental damage. Lovely. And, of course, this is a case of corporate recidivism, because it always is.

Federal records show inspectors last checked the pipeline in 2011; the records do not include any current or ongoing inspections. A system-wide inspection of the 1,119-mile-long pipeline in 2009 resulted in the company paying a $48,700 fine in 2012 for failing to address corrosion problems in the pipeline at the Oregon refinery for three years. In addition, the operator was issued three warnings stemming from the 2009 inspection. One of them was for failing to inspect the pipeline crossing under the Ohio River between Addyston and Hebron for more than five years. Pipelines that go beneath bodies of navigable water must get additional scrutiny under federal regulation. The pipeline was not checked by running an inspection device through it from May 2004 until August 2009. In addition, the federal records show Mid-Valley received a warning in 2006 for not having pipeline route markers along a pipeline section in Hebron where people could reach it. And it was fined $35,000 in 2006 for a 2002 inspection where the operator was cited for failing to run a proper program of continuing education reminding people that the pipeline runs through parts of Kentucky and Ohio. The operator had sent calendars to residents living near the pipeline, but didn't include any public agencies or excavation services in the program. From 2006-13, leaks and spills from the pipeline caused $7.5 million in property damage, $1.3 million done in 2008 in Burlington. In the previous 39 accidents, 88 percent of the oil spilled was recovered.

And the inevitable epilogue entitled, "OK, so it's more than we said it was."

Federal environmental officials now estimate more than 20,000 gallons of crude oil - double the initial estimates - leaked from a pipeline into a nature preserve in southwest Ohio. Meanwhile, Sunoco Logistics said Monday that the pipeline has been repaired and reopened. Sunoco shut off the stretch of Mid-Valley Pipeline from Hebron, Ky., to Lima, Ohio, early March 18 after a leak was confirmed. Sunoco spokesman Jeff Shields said under a federally approved plan, a specially engineered clamp was placed on the 20-inch diameter pipeline, which had a 5-inch crack that leaked oil. The clamp was tested before oil flow resumed Sunday evening. Shields declined to say how much of the oil supply was disrupted in the last week in a system that runs about 1,000 miles from Texas to Michigan. He said the information is considered internal company business.

Oh, well alright then.

Those fines are a joke. The companies involved can shake 35 grand out of the sofa cushions in the lobby.

Anyway, heard about this?

I didn't think so.