EPA waives clean gasoline rules after Alabama pipeline spill

The Environmental Protection Agency has lifted the federal requirement for cleaner-burning gasoline in 11 states and the District of Columbia in response to a pipeline rupture in Alabama last week that’s caused fuel shortages in much of the Southeastern U.S.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has temporarily waived the requirements for reformulated gasoline, which Congress required under the Clean Air Act in 1990 and has been part of the government’s smog-reduction strategy.

The affected areas include parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. The waiver is effective through Oct. 6.

“I have determined that an ‘extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstance’ exists that will prevent the distribution of an adequate supply of gasoline to consumers,” McCarthy wrote in a letter to the governors of those states and the mayor of the District of Columbia.

EPA will allow gas stations in those jurisdictions to sell conventional gasoline until their supplies are depleted. About 30 percent of the gasoline sold in the U.S. is reformulated, according to EPA.

On Sept. 9, the Colonial Pipeline Co. reported a gasoline spill in Shelby County, Alabama, about 20 miles south of Birmingham. The spill has released as many as 336,000 gallons of gasoline.

The company is constructing a 1,000-foot bypass pipeline to restore the flow of gasoline to Southeastern U.S. markets.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is investigating the pipeline rupture.

Colonial is owned by five companies, including Koch Industries, a conglomerate based in Wichita, Kansas, with a 28 percent stake.

A 1996 Colonial Pipeline rupture in upstate South Carolina spilled nearly 1 million gallons of diesel fuel into the Reedy River. The company paid a $34 million EPA fine for Clean Water Act violations in 2003.

This story was originally published September 20, 2016 at 4:11 PM with the headline "EPA waives clean gasoline rules after Alabama pipeline spill."