Claims settled in Kentucky, Louisiana oil spills

Nick Snow
Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON, DC, Aug. 17 -- Mid-Valley Pipeline Co. and Sunoco Pipeline LP (SPLP) agreed to pay $2.57 million total to the federal government and state of Kentucky concerning an oil spill last year.

A pipeline spill on Jan. 26, 2005, released more than 206,000 gal of crude oil into the Kentucky and Ohio rivers.

The complaint and consent decree, filed Aug. 15 in US District Court in Kentucky, also addressed government claims against Mid-Valley and Sun Pipe Line Co. for a 600,000-gal oil spill in Louisiana on Nov. 24, 2000.

Mid-Valley and Sun Pipe Line agreed to pay a $300,000 civil penalty for the Louisiana spill into Campit Lake in Claiborne Parish.

For the Kentucky spill, Mid-Valley and SPLP will pay $1.4 million to the federal government and $1.17 million to Kentucky. The companies also will enhance their spill response preparation and reimburse the state for more than $120,000 in response expenses.

Defendants already reimbursed federal response expenses of at least $234,000. The settlement also requires Mid-Valley and SPLP to donate $230,000 to a nonprofit organization that helps Kentucky environment.

The 2005 spill stemmed from a girth weld failure in 22-in. pipe that had been laid in 1950. An oil slick stretching more than 17 miles reached the Ohio River and harmed hundreds of migratory waterfowl, the US Environmental Protection Agency said.

The settlement, which resolves claims under the federal Clean Water Act and Kentucky environmental laws, is in addition to $9.5 million which Mid-Valley and SPLP spent responding to the spill, EPA said.

The agency said the $300,000 penalty for the Louisiana spill is in addition to $2.2 million spent by the defendants in response costs and restoration, and to the more than $26,000 reimbursed for federal response costs.

Penalties paid to the US will be deposited in the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

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