Federal regulators have ordered Plains All American Pipeline LP
to conduct a battery of tests and analyses to determine how the
failure of its pipeline caused a spill of crude oil off Santa
Barbara County, Calif., estimated at as much as 2,500 barrels, or
105,000 gallons.
Officials at the U.S. Transportation Department's Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the agency responsible
for oversight of the line, said Friday the company must fulfill all
of the requirements of the corrective order, issued Thursday,
before the line can restart pumping oil.
The order requires the company to determine the cause of the
spill, and test the entire line for any conditions similar to the
cause of the rupture. To do so, Plains All American must empty and
purge the pipeline, and conduct a physical and analytical review
that includes inspections of various engineering records and
company data, among other materials.
The order sets out specific deadlines—from 45 to 90
days—by which these tests and analyses must be conducted.
No fine was issued in the order.
While a cause of the spill wasn't determined, PHMSA said, in its
order, previous in-line inspections had occurred on the ruptured
line in 2007 and 2012, finding anomalies mostly because of external
corrosion at the site of some welds. On Tuesday, the day of the
spill, the controller of the ruptured line noticed anomalies in the
line's operating pressure and shut it down. The spill was
determined hours later.
Once the root cause of the spill is determined, the company must
submit a restart plan that includes modifications to the company's
operations and maintenance procedures that have to be approved by
the administration.
The federal order comes as the cleanup response to the spill
carries on as a 24-hour-a-day operation. Democratic Gov. Jerry
Brown declared a state of emergency in the county Wednesday
evening, freeing up emergency state funding and resources to help
in the cleanup.
State wildlife officials said they had rescued five brown
pelicans that had been coated with oil. They are being kept at a
local wildlife care facility. A juvenile seal partially covered in
oil had also been taken to SeaWorld for treatment.
The spill is also being investigated by the Environmental
Protection Agency. Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce
Dudley and state Attorney General Kamala Harris have also said they
are looking into the spill for possible criminal prosecution or
civil liability.
Write to Alejandro Lazo at alejandro.lazo@wsj.com and Erin
Ailworth at Erin.Ailworth@wsj.com
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