NEW ORLEANS (CN) — Greenpeace on Tuesday reported that Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco, which are building the controversial Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana, are among the worst polluters on record.
The report by Greenpeace and the Waterkeeper Alliance, “Oil and Water: ETP and Sunoco’s History of Pipeline Spills,” says Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco are responsible for 527 pipeline incidents over the past 15 years, including pervasive water pollution, spills, permit violations, and stop-work orders on construction of pipelines such as the Bayou Bridge.
In those 15 years, ETP and Sunoco have reported 527 hazardous spills to federal authorities: approximately one incident every 11 days, the report states.
The incidents reported 3.6 million gallons of hazardous spills, including 2.8 million gallons of crude oil. The report documents an additional 2.4 million gallons of drilling fluids, sediment and industrial waste spilled during construction of just two ETP projects, the Rover and Mariner pipelines, in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
One hundred and one of the reported spills – roughly a fifth – were of 50 barrels or more, a volume considered “significant” by the federal regulator. Sixty-seven spills contaminated water, and 18 contaminated groundwater. The spills caused an estimated $115 million in property damage and led to $5.6 million in penalties, according to the 18-page report.
State agencies and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have issued more than 100 notices of violation and noncompliance for construction of the Rover and Mariner pipelines in the past two years alone, the report states.
In 2017-18, ETP and Sunoco were issued 6 stop-work orders by state agencies and FERC because their construction operations violated permit requirements and rules designed to protect streams, rivers, wetlands, drinking water, historic sites and public safety.
Before construction of the Rover Pipeline even began, ETP was denied a blanket construction permit on the basis that it had demolished the historically significant 170-year old Stoneman House in Dennison, Ohio.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in denying the permit that ETP “could not be relied upon to comply with the environmental regulations” required of it.
When the Rover project was conditionally approved, Energy Transfer Partners worked quickly to make up for lost time.
“In its haste,” the report says, “ETP repeatedly contaminated waterways across Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. One August 2017 analysis concluded that Rover had ‘racked up more environmental violations than other major interstate natural gas pipelines built in the last two years’ – a total of 104 noncompliance incidents while the second-highest company only had 26 noncompliance incidents.”
The Bayou Bridge Pipeline is jointly owned by Energy Transfer Partners, which merged with Sunoco in 2012, and Phillips 66. As planned, the crude oil pipeline will span 162 miles, carrying almost half a million gallons of oil a day across 11 Louisiana parishes and 700 water bodies, from Nederland, Texas to St. James Parish in Louisiana, roughly 60 miles from New Orleans.
Energy Transfer Partners also built and owns the controversial Dakota Access pipeline. The Bayou Bridge pipeline will be the final leg connecting the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota with Louisiana refineries and export terminals.
The Greenpeace report states that public outrage over ETP’s plans for the Dakota Access pipeline led the Army Corps of Engineers to deny the company a permit in December 2016.