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COLONIAL PIPELINE FINED $7 MILLION FOR SOUTH CAROLINA OIL SPILL
Release Date: 03/05/99
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1999
COLONIAL PIPELINE FINED $7 MILLION FOR SOUTH CAROLINA OIL SPILL
Colonial Pipeline Co. (CPC), of Atlanta, Ga., pleaded guilty on Feb. 25, in U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina in Anderson and was ordered to pay a $7 million fine for violating the Clean Water Act (CWA). The charges arose from an incident on June 26, 1996, when CPC’s pipeline ruptured at a point where it crosses the Reedy River near Simpsonville, S.C. In pleading guilty to the charge, CPC acknowledged that it had negligently operated its pipeline, and that its failure to exercise reasonable care resulted in the release of approximately 960,000 gallons of diesel fuel which polluted a 23-mile segment of the Reedy River. The spill killed approximately 35,000 fish and also harmed other wildlife. The spill was the sixth largest in the history of the United States. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a five-year probation term, during which the company will have to develop and implement an environmental compliance program to prevent and detect any further violations of the CWA on a 5,318 mile pipeline that it operates from Houston Texas, to Linden, N.J. The court also required the company to make presentations to national pipeline associations regarding the obligations that similar pipelines have under the CWA. This case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI, and was prosecuted jointly by the United States Attorneys Office for the District of South Carolina and Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section in Washington.
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