Burst Pipeline's Spill Plan Is None of Your Business, Suggests Regulator

From:  Inside Climate News 

By Naveena Sadasivam, InsideClimate News

PHMSA has released ExxonMobil's spill response plan for the ruptured Pegasus pipeline—but most of the crucial elements have been completely redacted.

Aug 20, 2013

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) completely redacted more than 100 pages of ExxonMobil's 290-page emergency response plan for the Pegasus pipeline, which was released as a result of an InsideClimate News' FOIA request. Maps of the 850-mile route of the Pegasus, like the one pictured here, also included redactions.

Federal regulators have released ExxonMobil's 2013 emergency response plan for the pipeline that ruptured in an Arkansas residential neighborhood on March 29, but the document is so heavily redacted that it offers little information about Exxon's preparations for such an accident.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) completely blotted out more than 100 pages of the 290-page document, including Exxon’s worst-case scenario hypothesis and its plans to repair any damage caused by an accident. What remains is emergency contact information for local authorities and Exxon officials and maps of the 850-mile route of the Pegasus pipeline, which also include a few redactions.
PHMSA even redacted part of the ExxonMobil watermark that appears on more than 150 pages of the document.

Most of the redactions are marked as exempted under the (b)(7)(F) code. According to the Department of Justice's Guide to the Freedom of Information Act, exemption 7 "protects law enforcement information that could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual."
PHMSA spokesman Damon Hill said that exemption applies to law enforcement agencies—and that PHMSA is considered a law enforcement agency.
"These [emergency plans] could be used by our pipeline safety enforcement personnel for investigations and verifications," Hill said.
Scott Hodes, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) attorney who previously worked in the Department of Justice's Office of Information and Privacy, said that argument may not be valid. "I don't know if it would hold up in court," Hodes said.
PHMSA posted the documents after InsideClimate News submitted a FOIA request in June, asking for Exxon's emergency response plans between 2004 and 2013—a total of seven documents. The goal was to compare Exxon's response to the spill with the strategy outlined in its emergency plan and to analyze any modifications the company made after it reversed the pipeline’s flow in 2006 to carry diluted bitumen, or dilbit.

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