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Colonial Pipeline Company Clean Water Act Settlement

U.S. REACHES LANDMARK SETTLEMENT WITH COLONIAL PIPELINE FOR OIL SPILLS IN FIVE STATES

$34 Million Civil Penalty is the Largest Paid by a Company in EPA History

The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency announced on April 1, 2003, a settlement with Colonial Pipeline, resolving charges that the company violated the Clean Water Act on seven occasions by spilling 1.45 million gallons of oil from its 5,500 mile pipeline in five states. Colonial will upgrade environmental protection on the pipeline at an estimated cost of at least $30 million, and pay $34 million under the consent decree. This is the largest civil penalty a company has paid in EPA history.

Colonial is the largest-volume pipeline transporter of refined petroleum products in the world, based in Atlanta, Georgia. The pipeline moves an average of 83 million gallons of petroleum products per day through an underground pipeline that stretches from Port Arthur, Texas, to Linden, New Jersey, passing through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

The government maintained that pipeline corrosion, mechanical damage, and operator error in seven recent spills resulted in the release of approximately 1.45 million gallons of oil and other petroleum products in the environment, including numerous rivers, streams, and wetlands. Oil spills from the pipeline damaged a variety of aquatic systems. In one spill, more that 950,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the Reedy River in South Carolina in 1996, killing 35,000 fish and other species of wildlife, and dispersing more than 34 miles downstream. It can take years for an ecosystem to recover from damage caused by an oil spill.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said, "maintaining the integrity of our nation's industrial infrastructure, such as oil pipelines, is a critical priority for the Justice Department." "Today's settlement sends the message that we will vigorously pursue violations of environmental laws that subject our citizens and our environment to potentially catastrophic consequences."

Colonial is required to 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.

The settlement agreement was lodged at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta on April 1, 2003, and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.

Enforcement Programs

For additional information, contact:

Cheryl Rose
U.S. EPA
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (2243A)
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-4136
rose.cheryl@epa.gov

Civil Enforcement | Cleanup Enforcement | Criminal Enforcement

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