WASHINGTON - The federal government shutdown has affected the state and federal lawsuit over the Mayflower oil spill, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Tuesday.
“The reality is that this shutdown is very bad for the citizens of Mayflower and for our state,” McDaniel wrote in a letter to U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin asking the Republican from Little Rock to urge Republican congressional leaders to end the shutdown.
In his own letter, Griffin agreed that the shutdown “impairs our collective efforts” to fix problems caused by the spill. He asked McDaniel to urge President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to negotiate with Republicans and bring the shutdown to an end.
“I think about the Pegasus Pipeline spill every day, so this has definitely been on my mind,” Griffin said in an interview Tuesday. “What I’m concerned about is a shutdown that drags on … that hampers all the components of the analysis and cleanup effort that are federal related.”
The March 29 pipeline failure spilled more than 100,000 gallons of Canadian heavy crude oil into a Mayflower subdivision and nearby waterways, including part of Lake Conway. The 65-year-old Pegasus pipeline ruptured between two houses and prompted the long-term evacuation of 22 homes. Exxon Mobil has offered to buy the residences at pre-spill appraisal prices. The rupture also injured, displaced or killed hundreds of animals and led to the filing of several other lawsuits, including one on behalf of 64 Mayflower residents.
McDaniel sued Exxon Mobil on behalf of the state June 13 for civil penalties and for cleanup costs. He is joined by the U.S. Department of Justice. In the Eastern District Court of Arkansas the case is USA et al v. Exxonmobil Pipeline Company et al.
The federal government has been partially shut down since Congress failed to pass a budget or legislation allowing spending to temporarily continue by the end of federal fiscal year 2013.
Along with barricaded monuments and shuttered parks, thousands of federal workers were furloughed, or sent home without pay, on Oct. 1.
The number of furloughed federal workers has affected the Mayflower case, McDaniel’s letter states.
McDaniel’s spokesman Aaron Sadler said the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration investigation into the spill has slowed because more than 60 percent of its employees have been sent home without pay. More than two-thirds of the U.S. Department of Justice employees were sent home, slowing its role in helping Arkansas prosecute the case, he said.
“We need to be able to collaborate with [the Justice Department] on matters such as scheduling and legal strategy. Since the shutdown occurred, we have not even been able to contact [the department’s] lead attorney on the case,” Sadler said.
Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration have been furloughed, and no one answered their phones Tuesday.
Data from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality show it sent home 19 of 42 employees in the Hazardous Waste Division, 19 of 88 in the Water Division and 7 of 14 in the Legal Division.
Sadler said some Environmental Quality Department employees were expected to be called to give testimony during the discovery process. Others were still taking water samples and testing them. He said the attorney general had counted on the department’s attorneys to help review and assemble the case.
The remaining employees involved in litigating the case, investigating the spill and cleaning up the site have been told that the Mayflower spill is a priority over other work, Department Director Teresa Marks said, but there’s no guarantee that something else won’t happen that takes precedence.
“So far it hasn’t been anything that we haven’t been able to handle,” Marks said. “The longer this goes on, the more difficult that will probably become.”
While McDaniel and Griffin were exchanging letters, two leading candidates for governor also weighed in on the shutdown. Republican hopeful Asa Hutchinson of Rogers said federal lands in Arkansas should be kept open for hunting, fishing and recreation.
“I am disappointed that partisan politics in Washington have taken precedence over our citizens and our long standing traditions held in Arkansas,” the former 3rd District congressman said in a written statement. “The federal lands in Arkansas belong to the people and they should be open for Arkansans to enjoy the sporting heritage that has been passed on for many generations.”
Democrat Mike Ross of Little Rock said in a statement that all of the federal government should reopen.
“We shouldn’t piecemeal government back together to score political points, which is why I call on Congress to do their jobs, settle their differences and fully reopen the government as quickly as possible,” the former 4th District congressman said.
In addition to numerous federal employees, hundreds of Arkansas state employees have also been furloughed because their jobs are funded by the federal government.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 10/09/2013