Exxon Mobil has estimated it will provide government attorneys with almost 150,000 documents in response to a federal judge's recent order to disclose more information in a lawsuit over the Pegasus pipeline's rupture and oil spill in Mayflower last year.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker ordered two subsidiaries of the corporation to expand evidence it has turned over to include information relating to the full length of the Pegasus pipeline over a 25-year period and to provide any documents that are not legally confidential regarding the company's "current, best estimate" of how much oil spilled.
On Tuesday, Baker agreed to give Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. and Mobil Pipe Line Co. more time to produce any such nonconfidential documents. She extended the deadline from July 10 to July 31.
"The Defendants are on track to produce the responsive, non-privileged documents that they had already identified prior to this Court's order," the companies' attorneys wrote in a document seeking the extension and filed last week. "To date, the Defendants have produced approximately 117,000 documents consisting of over 430,000 pages. They estimate that they will produce at least 30,000 additional documents by the July 10 deadline."
But now, the defense attorneys said, they must turn over "thousands of additional documents" under Baker's order and update other information, so they need more time. They will, however, still provide as many of the additional papers as they can by July 10, they wrote.
The defense motion referred to the portion of the judge's order to expand the shared evidence, or discovery, to include the pipeline's full length. Their unopposed motion did not mention her ruling that they also should provide any nonconfidential documents relating to the size of the March 29, 2013, spill.
Confidential information in this case is that created by attorneys on behalf of one of the clients.
Defense attorneys have said they don't have such an estimate and are not withholding it from the plaintiffs -- the U.S. attorney and the Arkansas attorney general.
"Defendants agree that the amount of oil released is relevant, but disagree that they can provide any more specificity than they already have at this time," they have argued. "Usually, the amount of oil discharged during an incident cannot be known with a significant degree of certainty until the pipeline is restarted."
Exxon Mobil has repeatedly told reporters and others that an estimated 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, of heavy crude oil spilled from the Pegasus pipeline, built in 1947-48.
It's not known if the companies believe that number could change significantly.
In their motion seeking more time, defense attorneys spoke of the vast amount of documents and the large number of lawyers involved in their discovery research for this case and other lawsuits filed over the spill.
"Defendants' efforts have been ongoing and extensive," they wrote. "This search resulted in the collection and analysis of almost four million separate documents. Of that total, over 800,000 documents have been individually reviewed by an attorney for responsiveness and privilege.
"The Defendants enlisted [40] full-time contract lawyers to do nothing but review documents for responsiveness and privilege. "In addition, over [25] attorneys from the firms of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings and Sidley Austin have been engaged in the review and production of documents. Thus far, the attorneys have spent in excess of 24,600 hours reviewing and producing documents," they added.
As a result of the judge's recent order, the attorneys said, they expect to review an estimated 56,000 or more additional documents. Attorneys had originally concluded that about 26,000 of these did not need to be submitted because they addressed only the pipeline's southern portion or because they fell outside of date limitations the defendants had set. The remaining 30,000 documents are being reviewed to make sure they weren't missed in past searches, the lawyers said.
Aaron Sadler, spokesman for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, said Tuesday that the state office is "coordinating with the [Justice] Department to review documents."
"There are four attorneys from our office who are working on the case daily," Sadler wrote in an email. "A lawyer from [the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality] and three law clerks are also assisting with document review.
"It would be premature to say whether additional resources would be needed," Sadler said.
Cherith Beck, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Little Rock, did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Also Tuesday, Baker set a new trial date for Sept. 21, 2015. Both sides had agreed to the schedule.
The Pegasus pipeline carried 95,000 barrels of heavy Canadian crude per day from Patoka, Ill., to Nederland, Texas. The 650-mile northernmost section of the 850-mile line remains shut down, though a 211-mile stretch in Texas has approval to restart operation.
The Texas segment of the Pegasus pipeline has not been restarted yet even though the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration approved Exxon Mobil's restart plan for it on March 31.
"We anticipate it will be restarted at a reduced pressure" this month, Exxon Mobil spokesman Aaron Stryk said Tuesday.
Asked about the reason for the delay in restarting the southern portion, Stryk said, "We planned to restart the Texas segment once all necessary safety and operational testing had been completed."
The pipeline ruptured between two houses in Mayflower's Northwoods subdivision in the spring of 2013. Authorities ordered 22 homes evacuated there, and many residents never moved back. The oil spread into three drainage ditches and a cove of Lake Conway. The cove cleanup continues.
Katherine Benenati, spokesman for the state environmental agency, said Tuesday that a revised mitigation action plan, submitted June 26 by Exxon Mobil, is under review.
That plan is aimed at getting rid of oil sheens in the cove, which is separated from the main portion of Lake Conway by Arkansas 89. Authorities have said oil did not reach the popular fishing lake's main body.
According to the mitigation plan, a wetlands "restoration plan is currently under development in conjunction with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission" for the cove to meet U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requirements.
A remedial work plan for the northern section is pending before the safety administration, often called PHMSA, as is a decision on whether Exxon Mobil violated federal safety regulations.
"PHMSA is still reviewing ExxonMobil's remedial work plan for the northern segment of Pegasus, and we have not issued a final order at this time in response to the June 2014 hearing," safety administration spokesman Damon Hill said in an email Tuesday.
During the June hearing in Houston, Exxon Mobil appealed the agency's findings of nine "probable" safety violations and a proposed $2.66 million fine. The hearing was closed to the public.
A Section on 07/02/2014