By
Phil Mattera, Dirt
Diggers Digest
It’s true that freight railroads have had their share of
accidents, but pipelines are hardly risk-free. The new Violation Tracker database provides
documentation on the hazards of both modes of moving dirty oil.
Pipeline regulation is under the purview of the Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), a division of the U.S.
Department of Transportation. Violation Tracker has collected data on more than
200 significant enforcement cases brought by the agency since the beginning of
2010. These cases have resulted in total penalties of $28 million.
These include a$3.7 million penalty linked to a 2010
accident that spewed more than 800,000 gallons of oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo
River, a major waterway that flows into Lake Michigan. The agency followed the
penalty announcement with a statement that there was a “lack of a safety
culture” at Enbridge, which had previously been fined $2.4 million for an accident in Minnesota
in which two workers were killed when the oil in a leaking pipeline ignited.
(For more on Enbridge’s dubious track record, see its Corporate
Rap Sheet.)
Second among the top PHMSA violators is BP with $4.6 million in
penalties, most of which came from a provision of a larger settlement also
involving the Justice Department and the EPA concerning a spill on the North
Slope of Alaska.
Third is Buckeye Partners with 18 cases involving just under
$2 million in PHMSA penalties. Four other companies have been penalized in
excess of $1 million by the agency since 2010: Kinder Morgan, Enterprise
Products Partners, Exxon Mobil and Marathon Petroleum.
The biggest single penalty from this group was the $1,045,000
fine imposed on Exxon Mobil in connection with a 2011 rupture of a pipeline in
Montana that sent more than 40,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone
River.
This is the track record that Keystone XL advocates seem to
think argues in favor of pipelines. As noted, they are on stronger ground when
criticizing railroads. They can point to incidents such as the derailment of a
CSX oil train in West Virginia that caused a fire that burned for days and
forced the evacuations of hundreds of people.
The Federal Railroad Administration tends to impose modest
penalties but Violation Tracker shows that half a dozen lines have
managed to accumulate $1 million or more in safety fines since 2010. In the
lead is Union Pacific, with $11.1 million in penalties, including the agency’s single
largest fine of $565,000.
Second is Berkshire Hathaway (parent of BNSF) with
$7.4 million, followed by CSX with $2.7 million and Norfolk Southern with $3.4
million. All of the Class I railroads are well represented on the penalty list.
The debate between pipelines and supposedly safer railroads is a
false one. The major companies in both industries have track records that make
oil transport a hazardous proposition.
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New in Corporate Rap Sheets: Dollar
Tree, now leading the retail sector targeting those too poor to shop
at Walmart.
Also note: POGO’s Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, one of
the inspirations for Violation Tracker, has been revamped.