Oil Spill

Biden’s Offshore Drilling ‘Ban’ Won’t Protect Gulf of Mexico

January 10, 2025 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. Educate! climate crisis, Fossil Fuels, Gulf of Mexico, Joe Biden, Oil Drilling, Oil Spill

Democrats in Congress cheered as President Joe Biden moved on January 6 to withdraw 625 million acres federal ocean waters off United States coastlines from consideration for future offshore oil and gas drilling. Democratic lawmakers say the waters are “permanently” protected, although Republicans could use their majority in Congress to force the government to lease underwater drilling rights to the industry. However, Biden’s last-minute effort to secure his climate legacy before Donald Trump takes office does nothing to prevent offshore drilling in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, where intense fossil fuel exploitation already causes pollution and oil spills as climate change brings intensifying floods and storms to coastal communities.

EPA Found No Threat Of Air Pollution During An Oil Spill In Louisiana

September 28, 2024 Julie Dermansky and Sharon Kelly, DeSmog. Educate! Activism, Air Pollution, Environment, EPA, Fossil Fuels, health, Louisiana, Oil Spill

The pungent smell of oil woke Gerald and Janet Crappel on the morning of Saturday, July 27. Stepping outside their home on the banks of Bayou Lafourche in Raceland, Louisiana, they spotted the fumes’ source: crude oil from Crescent Midstream’s Raceland pump station was gushing into the picturesque waterway, sparsely lined with homes and fishing boats, via a stormwater canal directly across from their home. The oil’s fumes were thick that morning. “It choked you,” Gerald told DeSmog correspondent Julie Dermansky, who documented the incident as it unfolded. Before cleanup crews contained the spill, reportedly 34,000 gallons of crude oil, a slick stretched for eight miles, just past the area’s drinking water system.

Imperial Oil Tailings Spill Fine A ‘Toothless Slap On The Wrist’

August 25, 2024 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. Resist! Canada, Energy, Environment, Indigenous Activism, Oil Spill, Social Justice

A major Canadian oil producer responsible for a toxic tailings pond leak that dumped 5.3 million litres of contaminated waste into the environment has been fined just $50,000 by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). Environmental Defence, a prominent Canadian environmental advocacy organization, called the AER’s response “toothless.” The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), an Indigenous community in Northern Alberta whose territory has been impacted by the tailings pond spill at Imperial Oil’s Kearl tar sands mine since at least 2022, called the fine “laughable” and further condemned what they called the AER’s “weak response.”

Fuel Spill Reignites Debate Over Military’s Land Lease

February 6, 2023 Colleen Uechi, Maui News. Resist! Environment, Hawaii, Oil Spill, Protests

Hawaii - A Native Hawaiian advocacy group is calling for the state to cancel the Maui Space Surveillance System’s lease when it expires in 2031, following a mechanical issue that released 700 gallons of diesel fuel at the summit of Haleakala earlier this week. The incident, which comes in the wake of fuel spills at military facilities on other islands in the past two years, has reignited the longstanding debate over the military’s use of land and the location of defense and research facilities on the summit of mountaintops that many Native Hawaiians consider sacred. “Kanaka Maoli have consistently protested the construction of these telescopes on sacred Haleakala,” the organization Kako’o Haleakala said in a statement on Friday afternoon. “This negligence, along with similar incidents concerning toxic chemical contamination at Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, O’ahu, and Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawai’i Island, shows the incompetence of the United States Department of Defense to protect the most sacred sites of our wao Akua.”

Whistle-Blower Reveals Flawed Construction At North Dakota Gas Plants Where Massive Spill Was Downplayed

October 4, 2019 By Justin Nobel, Desmogblog.com Educate! Corruption, North Dakota, Oil Spill, Whistleblowers

Two North Dakota gas processing plants in the heart of the Bakken oil fields have shown signs of an eroded safety culture and startling construction problems, according to Paul Lehto, a 54-year-old former gas plant operator who has come out as a whistle-blower. He described worrisome conditions at the Lonesome Creek plant, in Alexander, and the Garden Creek plant, in Watford City, where DeSmog recently revealed one of the largest oil and gas industry spills in U.S. history had occurred. Both plants process natural gas brought via pipeline from Bakken wells and are run by the Oklahoma-based oil and gas service company, ONEOK Partners.

Did North Dakota Regulators Hide An Oil And Gas Industry Spill Larger Than Exxon Valdez?

August 27, 2019 By Justin Nobel, Desmogblog.com Educate! North Dakota, Oil Spill, Regulation

In July 2015 workers at the Garden Creek I Gas Processing Plant, in Watford City, North Dakota, noticed a leak in a pipeline and reported a spill to the North Dakota Department of Health that remains officially listed as 10 gallons, the size of two bottled water delivery jugs. But a whistle-blower has revealed to DeSmog the incident is actually on par with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, which released roughly 11 million gallons of thick crude.

Pipeline Spills More Than 8,000 Gallons of Jet Fuel Into Indiana River

September 17, 2018 By Olivia Rosane, Ecowatch.com Educate! Indiana, Oil Spill, Pipelines

A pipeline spilled more than 8,000 gallons of jet fuel into an Indiana river, The Associated Press reported Sunday. The affected river was St. Marys River in Decatur, which is a town of 9,500 people about 100 miles from Indianapolis. Cleaning the spill could take weeks, Decatur Mayor Kenneth L. Meyer told the Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Journal Gazette. The spill was first reported Friday night in a safety warning issued by the Decatur Police Department urging residents to avoid the area around the spill, local news outlet WANE reported Saturday. Houston-based Buckeye Pipe Line Company, L.P., which owns the pipeline, confirmed the spill to WANE Saturday. Company officials said there had been a failure Friday evening that had caused the spill.

Tribe Says Army Corps Stonewalling On Dakota Access Pipeline Report, Oil Spill Risk

September 7, 2018 Phil McKenna, Insideclimatenews.org Resist! Dakota Access Pipeline, Oil Spill, Pipelines

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is defending its claim that the Dakota Access pipeline has no significant environmental impact, but it issued only a brief summary of its court-ordered reassessment while keeping the full analysis confidential. The delay in releasing the full report, including crucial details about potential oil spills, has incensed the Standing Rock Tribe, whose reservation sits a half-mile downstream from where the pipeline crosses the Missouri River. The tribe said the Army Corps is stonewalling, and it said it will continue to oppose the pipeline. Meanwhile, oil continues to flow through the pipeline two years after opponents set up a desperate encampment to try to block the project. In June 2017, a federal judge ordered the Corps to reassess the potential environmental harm posed by the pipeline,

Crude Oil Leaks Into Floodwaters After Train Derails In Iowa

June 23, 2018 Staff, Apnews.com Educate! Iowa, Leak, Oil, Oil Spill

DOON, Iowa (AP) — A freight train derailed in northwest Iowa on Friday, leaking crude oil from into flooded fields flanking the tracks and raising concerns about the possible contamination of residential water supplies downstream, officials said. BNSF railroad spokesman Andy Williams said no one was injured when 33 oil tanker cars from Alberta, Canada, derailed around 4:30 a.m. Friday just south of Doon in Lyon County. Some of the tankers were compromised, causing the oil to leak into floodwaters and eventually into the rain-swollen Little Rock River, but officials didn’t have an exact number of tankers that leaked oil by late Friday afternoon, Williams said. BNSF had hazardous materials and environmental experts on the scene and had begun cleanup within hours of the derailment, Williams said.

Enbridge Fined For Failing To Fully Inspect Pipelines After Kalamazoo Oil Spill

May 5, 2018 David Hasemyer, Insideclimatenews.org Resist! Michigan, Oil Spill, Pipelines

The Canadian oil pipeline company responsible for one of the largest inland oil spills on record has agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine for failing to thoroughly inspect its pipelines for weaknesses as required under a 2016 agreement. Federal officials say Enbridge, Inc., did not carry out timely and thorough inspections on one of its pipeline systems, as it had agreed to do as part of a consent decree reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice. The 2016 settlement stemmed from a massive 2010 oil spill into Michigan's Kalamazoo River. The spill required years and more than a billion dollars to clean up, and it highlighted the hazards of pumping heavy tar sands oil through pipelines. More than 1 million gallons of tar sands oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River near the town of Marshall when a 6-foot rupture opened in Enbridge pipeline 6B.

For 15 Years, Energy Transfer Partners Pipelines Leaked An Average Of Once Every 11 Days

April 27, 2018 By Sharon Kelly, Desmogblog.com Educate! Leak, Oil Spill, Pipelines

5,475 days, 527 pipeline spills: that's the math presented in a new report from environmental groups Greenpeace USA and the Waterkeeper Alliance examining pipelines involving Dakota Access builder Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). It's based on public data from 2002 to 2017. All told, those leaks released 3.6 million gallons of hazardous liquids, including 2.8 million gallons of crude oil, according to data collected from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). That doesn't include an additional 2.4 million gallons of “drilling fluids, sediment, and industrial waste” leaked during ETP's construction of two pipelines in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. Also left out: air pollution and leaks from natural gas pipelines, which were beyond the scope of the new report but which play a significant role in climate change and can cause explosions.

Standing Rock: Dakota Access Pipeline Leak Technology Can’t Detect All Spills

March 15, 2018 Phil McKenna, Insideclimatenews.org Resist! Dakota Access Pipeline, Oil Spill, Standing Rock

Nine months after oil starting flowing through the Dakota Access pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe continues to fight the controversial project, which passes under the Missouri River just upstream from their water supply. In a 313-page report submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the tribe challenged the adequacy of leak detection technology used by pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners. The tribe also questioned the company's worst-case spill estimate and faulted Energy Transfer Partners for failing to provide a detailed emergency response plan to the tribe showing how the company would respond to an oil spill. "We wanted to show how and what we are still fighting here," said Doug Crow Ghost, water resources director for the Standing Rock Tribe.

Top Pipeline Safety Official Profits From Oil Spills

October 13, 2017 Itai Vardi, www.nationofchange.org Educate! Oil Spill, Pipelines, Profit

By Itai Vardi for Nation of Change - A newly appointed federal regulator charged with overseeing pipeline safety personally profits from oil spill responses, a DeSmog investigation has found. Drue Pearce is the acting administrator for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), an agency in the Department of Transportation responsible for ensuring oil and gas pipeline integrity. However, she is also associated with a company specializing in the sale of oil spill equipment. Pearce, a Republican from Alaska, was appointed on August 7 by the Trump administration to serve as PHMSA’s deputy administrator, a position that does not require U.S. Senate confirmation. However, since at the time the administration had yet to nominate an administrator for the agency, Pearce stepped into the role as acting administrator. In early September, Trump finally nominated, and last Friday the Senate confirmed rail transport executive Howard Elliot as PHMSA administrator. Once Elliot formally takes the helm at PHMSA, Pearce will serve as his deputy. Business records filed in the state of Alaska and reviewed by DeSmog show that since 2009 Pearce and her husband, Michael F. Williams, have owned Spill Shield Inc., an Anchorage-based company selling equipment for oil spill responses. The company’s website offers various products, including booms, baffles, skimmers, absorbents, and oil spill response kits.

As Arkema Plant Burns, 6 Things We Know About Petrochemical Risks

September 5, 2017 Gretchen Goldman, www.blog.ucsusa.org Educate! Hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Oil and Gas, Oil Spill

By Gretchen Goldman for USCUSA - As Harvey continues to wreak havoc in the Southeast, one issue is starting to emerge as a growing threat to public health and safety: Houston’s vast oil, gas, and chemical production landscape. We’ve already seen accidental releases of chemicals at facilities owned by ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others. Now we are seeing explosions at Arkema’s Crosby facility 20 miles northeast of Houston, due to power failures and flooding. And there remains a threat of additional explosions. There is no reason to believe the Crosby facility is the only one at risk of chemical disasters right now. The coast of southeast Texas and Louisiana has a whole lot of petrochemical production—infrastructure that was exactly in the path of Hurricane Harvey and continues to be hit by its remnants. I’ve studied (and been worried about) chemical safety, sea level rise, and storm surge riskto oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf for several years, and many of those fears are now playing out. Here are some things we know about petrochemical production in the Gulf, its storm risks, who’s impacted, and who’s responsible.

Court Lets Exxon Off Hook For Pipeline Spill In Arkansas Neighborhood

August 18, 2017 Georgina Gustin, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Arkansas, Exxon, Oil Spill, Pipelines

By Georgina Gustin for Inside Climate News - A federal appeals court has let ExxonMobil largely off the hook for a 2013 pipeline spill that deluged a neighborhood in Mayflower, Arkansas, with more than 200,000 gallons of heavy tar sands crude oil, sickening residents and forcing them from their homes. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday overturned federal findings of violations and the better part of a $2.6 million fine imposed on Exxon's pipeline unit in 2015 by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The regulator had accused the company of failing to maintain the decades-old Pegasus Pipeline and to prioritize testing of a segment of older, high-risk pipe where a 22-foot gash eventually opened along a metal seam. Exxon challenged the violation and fine, arguing there was no proof its actions contributed to the spill and saying it had conducted adequate testing of the pipeline as required by law. The appeals court agreed, saying the company met its legal obligation when it "conducted a lengthy, repeated and in-depth analysis" of the pipeline and its risks.

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