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Concerned citizens and environmentalists gather at the Big Creek Lake bridge on U.S. 98 Saturday, August 3, 2013, in Semmes, Ala., to protest a controversial crude oil pipeline through Mobile's drinking water supply. Beth Tombers of Mobile, Ala., right, joins others in the protest. (Mike Kittrell/mkittrell@al.com)
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By Casi Callaway, executive director of Mobile Baykeeper, and Keith Johnston, managing attorney for the Birmingham-based Southern Environment Law Center
What would normally be a busy start of summer season for coastal tourism in Santa Barbara County, Calif., has been bustling for all of the wrong reasons. Many local businesses were forced to close their doors in the wake of a ruptured pipeline spilling over 100,000 gallons of crude oil, coating some of California's most beautiful beaches.
The Plains All-American pipeline spill sent 21,000 gallons into the Pacific Ocean, creating an almost 10-square-mile oil slick. State officials closed two beaches and banned fishing indefinitely in some areas. Tar balls have been seen at beaches over 100 miles from the pipeline. Sea lions, dolphins, birds, and countless fish and shellfish have fallen victim to the spill.
The cleanup is expected to be complicated and take months to complete, if not more, and coastal business owners are already estimating tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Casi Callaway (File photo)
The recent Plains pipeline spill in Santa Barbara is not an anomaly. In 2014, a Plains pipeline ruptured in Los Angeles, sending 18,000 gallons of crude oil into the streets. In 2011, a pipeline operated by Plains' Canadian branch leaked 37,000 barrels of oil into Alberta's boreal forest. In 2010, Plains and EPA settled an enforcement action concerning 10 oil spills between 2004 and 2007 that discharged more than 273,000 gallons of crude oil across the nation.
As we speak, millions of gallons of crude oil are coursing through a Plains pipeline in the Big Creek Lake watershed along Hamilton Creek in Mobile -- in a pipeline the exact same size as the pipeline in California -- less than a mile from Big Creek Lake, the drinking water source for all of Mobile. Despite pleas from the public, Plains insisted on this route to save money.
How could this reckless placement have been approved? Systematic failure at all levels of government. The Alabama Public Service Commission issued a Certificate of Industrial Development in January 2012 authorizing Plains to institute condemnation proceedings for its private pipeline and profit, and not one politician or government agency seriously questioned or opposed its issuance.
Keith Johnston
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, without public notice or a chance for public comment, approved the pipeline in January 2013 under a streamlined permitting process that requires little or no environmental review. In August 2013, the Mobile County Commission asked the Corps to revoke its issuance of the general permit, but later reversed course and withdrew its request without any explanation. The Mobile Area Water and Sewer System fought the condemnation of its land for the pipeline, but eventually settled with Plains.
In January 2014, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Mobile Baykeeper, filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' streamlined permitting process for the pipeline. The judge agreed that the Corps had not considered the pipeline's proximity to the drinking water supply, but found that the Corps was under no obligation to expressly consider proximity of the drinking water intake due to the nature of the check-the-box approval permit authorized by the Corps. The Corps could have required a more rigorous permit, yet chose a simpler permitting process to make things easier for Plains.
There was a simpler solution for the Plains pipeline; it could have been built in a different location away from our water supply. Instead, Plains put profit over people and our local, state and federal governments chose industry over citizens, jeopardizing the public health, environment and economy of Mobile, indefinitely.
History, and Plains' history, shows that pipeline ruptures and oil spills are not rare occurrences. The long-term effects can have devastating impacts on our communities and businesses.
If Plains' pipeline ruptured in Mobile, our sole source of drinking water would be in danger. Our local, state and federal agencies should take measures to ensure that Plains' Mobile pipeline will not put our drinking water in harm's way and reassure our community that this illogical and ill-advised placement of oil infrastructure will not happen again.