Responding to repeated requests for information about a pipeline that runs through the Lake Maumelle watershed, Exxon Mobil has told Arkansas leaders it is “premature” to have “discussions of significance” until an investigation of the March 29 spill of heavy crude oil in a Mayflower neighborhood is complete.
“The Pegasus Pipeline has been a safe and reliable pipeline with no major incidents for 64 years until the Mayflower breach,” Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. President Gary Pruessing wrote to several Arkansas public officials in a letter Friday. “It would be premature to engage in discussions of significance until the investigation of the pipeline failure is complete.
“At the appropriate time, we plan to sit down with you and with representatives of the [Central Arkansas Water utility] to review our work plan and restart plan … before the pipeline is placed back in operation,” Pruessing said in the letter, obtained Monday by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Pruessing also said it is up to the federal government, not the company, to decide what investigative information to release and when. He later said, however, the company had shared “preliminary conclusions of test results” with Central Arkansas Water, which oversees Lake Maumelle’s drinking-water supply.
Exxon Mobil also has openly discussed the findings of a laboratory’s report that details the cause of the pipe’s failure, though the company and the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration have repeatedly declined to release the report. The company also has released some information to a few political leaders that has not been released to the public.
Pruessing’s letter quickly drew criticism from various Arkansas leaders, including Gov. Mike Beebe, Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin and U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat.
“I’m tired of everybody blaming everybody else for not releasing the information,” said Beebe, whom Pruessing copied on the letter. Putting the blame on someone else is “inappropriate,” he said.
“Even if corrective action can’t be taken until they’re through with all of their investigation, there’s nothing that should preclude anybody and everybody … from releasing” the information, the governor said. Sharing such information - including the full report on what caused the rupture, as well as past in-line inspections - “gives the public … a better idea of the breadth of information.”
Griffin, said the 13.5-mile pipeline segment that runs through a part of Lake Maumelle’s watershed should be relocated, and the federal government and Exxon Mobil “should move faster in addressing our concerns.”
“Community leaders and the public are entitled to know the facts so that we can do everything in our power to make sure the drinking water for more than 400,000 Arkansans remains safe,” added Griffin, whose district includes Mayflower.
Pryor, said, “Exxon Mobil is dodging our question. It’s time for them to take action and move the pipeline out of the Maumelle watershed as we requested. The pipeline belongs to Exxon, and the question of moving it requires a yes or no answer.”
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said he thinks the company can “move faster” in completing the information the utility wants. Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola did not return messages seeking comment.
Earlier this month, the Democrat-Gazette obtained a copy of the laboratory report’s five-paragraph conclusion that said the failure resulted in part because of a 1940s manufacturing defect. The summary said cracks in the pipe’s seam were up to more than 1 foot long and were present “for an unknown period of time” before the rupture.
In a related development on Monday, Exxon Mobil Corp. spokesman Aaron Stryk put the number of barrels of oil spilled into the Northwoods subdivision back at an earlier estimate of 5,000 barrels instead of the 3,500 barrels stated in May during a meeting with Central Arkansas Water officials.
Stryk said that he realized the 3,500-barrel “was shared during discussions with [Central Arkansas Water] and local officials in May, but we also cautioned at the time that a final number will not be available until the investigation is finalized and after the line is refilled. Our preference is to remain conservative and keep the estimate at 5,000.”
At 42 gallons per barrel, that means the company now says an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil spilled.
Stryk confirmed the 5,000-barrel estimate after the Democrat-Gazette asked about it in light of an updated accident report the pipeline administration released last week. That report gave the higher spill estimate.
On Friday, Pruessing addressed his letter to Pryor; Griffin; the mayors of Little Rock and North Little Rock; Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines; Marie-Bernarde Miller, chairman of the Central Arkansas Water board; and Republican U.S. Sen.John Boozman.
“While we now know a manufacturing defect caused the rupture, we are collaborating with [the pipeline administration] to conduct supplemental testing on the failed section of the pipeline to understand how the original defect failed,” Pruessing wrote.
He added: “We recognize this process is not as expedient as some would like but taking the time to get to the full root cause is essential for determining the correct path forward. Let me assure you that [the pipeline company] is … providing complete transparency to regulators.”
Pruessing said the company has been working with the utility “to develop a mechanism to share appropriate pipeline integrity data pertaining to the Maumelle watershed, including test results … under a process that safeguards proprietary and confidential information.”
He said the work and restart plans would include “additional safety processes,response measures for containment and ongoing integrity management practices.”
John Tynan, the utility’s watershed protection manager, said much of the information Exxon Mobil has shared with the utility to date has been in conversations.
“It’s been a lot of summary information and overviews,” Tynan said. “We’re requesting additional details … so we can do [an] independent evaluation of the safety and integrity” of the pipeline in the watershed area.
The utility has been requesting information - including the in-line inspection results, the metallurgical report and hydrostatic test results from 2006 - since May and has made “little progress” on those requests, Tynan said. “It’s fairly clear and specific on what information we need and why we need it.”
Tynan said it’s “really unclear as to who has the authority to release the information.”
“Some people do have the information; some people don’t,” he said. “[Central Arkansas Water] does not have any of the information we’ve requested.”
Authorities have said some of the spilled oil flowed into a cove of Lake Conway, a popular fishing site, but that none reached the main portion of the lake. However, the governor said Monday that his office had received information suggesting what he called “tarsands” oil “might actually show up at a deeper level, down at the bottom, than regular oil.”
Katherine Benenati, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said sediment samples will be taken “in the cove, downstream and at various points in the main body of the lake.”
“Since the samples haven’t been taken yet, it’s impossible to speculate on what we’ll find,” Benenati said in an email. “We haven’t seen any evidence at this point of oil sinking. The sediment testing will confirm whether there are any [oil-related] constituents in the sediment.”
Exxon Mobil has said the pipeline was carrying Wabasca heavy crude oil from Canada and not tar-sands oil as others have described it. But an energy consultant has said that Wabasca heavy crude oil is “effectively” the same type of oil as the tars and variety.
In an April 10 letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Exxon Mobil said in response to a question that the oil was bitumen diluted with “a condensate … to meet pipeline specifications.”
Such oil is called diluted bitumen, or dilbit for short. Diluent is added to help the thick oil flow through a pipeline. A “material safety sheet” filed in January with the pipeline administration indicates benzene, a carcinogen and a common diluent ingredient, was among the ingredients in this oil mixture.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/30/2013