Increase in Oil Pipeline Accidents Noted

An Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) analysis of Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) data shows that the amount of oil and other hazardous liquids released in a typical pipeline accident has been increasing annually since 1993. Releases of oil from pipelines can contaminate drinking water and crops, cause expensive property damage, kill fish, and create explosions and fires.

According to an EDF engineer who is testifying at a pipeline safety hearing today before the House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power, the average amount of oil released from a pipeline spill in 1998 was over 45,000 gallons. EDF’s analysis also shows that an average of over 6.3 million gallons of oil and other hazardous liquids are reported released from pipelines each year, more than half the amount released from the Exxon Valdez disaster. Since 1995, the overall amount of oil released to the environment has increased each year. An average of tens of thousands of gallons of oil was released from pipelines approximately every other day throughout the 1990s.

“The two upward trends in aggregate oil pipeline releases and release size clearly need to be reversed,” said Lois Epstein, EDF engineer. “Numerous oil pipeline companies are not preventing pollution from their pipelines, and the Office of Pipeline Safety is not forcing them to do so. The majority of these releases are from corrosion, operational incidents, and material defects.”

EDF’s analysis also examined property damage from oil and other hazardous liquid pipeline releases, which averaged over $39 million annually in the 1990s, with an average property damage cost per incident of over $194,000 (and a median cost of $20,000).

OPS has not issued any environmental protection regulations, despite Congress’ mandating the office to do so in the Pipeline Safety Act of 1992. The deadline for identifying areas “unusually sensitive to environmental damage” was October 1994, and the deadline for developing regulations for pipelines in those areas was October 1995. OPS also has not acted on many National Transportation Safety Board recommendations for more stringent oil pipeline standards, including one on corrosion that could have prevented the deaths of two teenagers in Texas in 1996, who died when the released gas exploded.

“Congress needs to change the pipeline law to allow states to develop their own standards and run their own enforcement programs for interstate pipelines,” said Epstein. “States need to be able to protect their environment and the public safety when the federal government’s efforts are inadequate.”

“The pipeline safety law does not make companies liable for releases, so releases are going up, while releases from tanker and barge transport are decreasing as a result of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990’s liability provisions,” said Epstein. “Congress needs to follow-up this hearing by amending the act so it includes liability provisions. Additionally, Congress should increase oversight of the federal pipeline agency, including examining the office’s priorities and its enforcement record.”