Exxon Gets Extension for Pipeline Repair Plan, Key Questions Still Unanswered

From:  Inside Climate News 

By Elizabeth Douglass

ExxonMobil [3] has landed a new deadline extension for telling regulators how it plans to safely resurrect the failed Pegasus oil pipeline, and the new April 7 due date guarantees that the line will still be idle one year after it ruptured and sent heavy crude streaming into an Arkansas neighborhood.

The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [4] (PHMSA, pronounced fimm-sa) granted [5] Exxon its second 90-day reprieve last month, but the change wasn't disclosed by Exxon and PHMSA until yesterday. Jan. 6 was the due date set by PHMSA for the Pegasus "remedial work plan" after Exxon requested a three-month extension from the original deadline of Oct. 6.

The delay worsens the state of limbo that has engulfed the pipeline and further frustrates officials who are still waiting for crucial details about what caused the spill and what remedies are under consideration.

There is substantial interest in the required Pegasus plan because it should disclose or offer clues about when Exxon hopes to restart the pipeline, all the factors that played a role in its failure, and how the company intends to prove that the 65-year-old line can be safely operated.  

All that is of great interest to officials and residents in Mayflower, Ark., where the 858-mile long Pegasus pipeline split apart [6] on March 29, spilling Canadian oil sands crude that was being carried from Illinois to the Texas Gulf Coast. An estimated 210,000 gallons of the heavy diluted bitumen, or dilbit, flowed into a subdivision and waterway, sickening nearby residents and permanently dislocating more than 20 families from homes that Exxon subsequently purchased or demolished.  

The case is also being closely watched by Arkansas' state and federal legislators, participants in a handful of Pegasus lawsuits, a water district hoping to protect Little Rock's drinking water from future oil spills and communities elsewhere along the pipeline's route.

Even other pipeline operators and environmentalists across the country are tracking the fate of the Pegasus. That's because the accident has been linked to the nationwide debate over the long-delayed Keystone XL oil import pipeline, which would also transport Canadian dilbit. In addition, the problems uncovered on the Pegasus—and the required fixes—could have nationwide ramifications, since more than a third of the country's hazardous liquid pipelines are of the same vintage and have the same inherent vulnerabilities as the Pegasus.

For all of them, the wait for answers just got at least three months longer.  MORE