Colonial Pipeline to pay $5 million in settlement from fuel spill near Huntersville
Editor’s note: This story was updated Thursday, July 7, with a judge’s approval of the settlement.
Colonial Pipeline will pay almost $5 million in penalties and take extensive steps to assess and repair the damage under a settlement of a state lawsuit over the massive 2020 gasoline spill in Mecklenburg County — the largest in North Carolina history.
The consent order, filed June 30 and approved in its entirety by a Mecklenburg County Superior Court judge Thursday, ends the court fight over the August 2020 spill in the Oehler Nature Preserve near Huntersville, about 14 miles from Charlotte.
The amount of gasoline that spewed out of the country’s largest petroleum pipeline is still being determined. Up to now, 1.4 million gallons have been recovered — far exceeding the original estimate released by the company.
The state sued in November.
“This release is on track to be the largest onshore spill in our nation’s history, and the order holds Colonial accountable for the necessary cleanup to restore the environment,” said Elizabeth Biser, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, said in a statement last week.
The settlement, which was approved by Judge Kimberly Best, requires the Atlanta-based Colonial to pay a $4.5 million civil penalty plus $250,000 in investigative costs and other fines.
The company also will be required to provide an accurate assessment of the size of the spill and the level of soil contamination while doing regular testing of bedrock and surface water. It also must submit a corrective action plan and a proposed schedule for the clean up, among other stipulations.
All terms of the order went into effect Thursday, July 7, according to NCDEQ.
The pipeline, the largest system of its kind in the United States, stretches 5,500 miles from Texas to New York and can carry up to 3 million barrels of fuel each day. It supplies almost half the gasoline consumed on the East Coast.
In a statement following the filing of the proposed settlement, Colonial said it will “take every appropriate step” to repair the site. So far, testing has indicated “no impact to drinking water wells,” the company said.
“We remain committed to keeping all stakeholders informed throughout this process and being in the Huntersville community for as long as it takes to restore the natural environment to acceptable regulatory standards,” Colonial said, adding that it intends to earn back “the trust of the community through our actions on the ground in Mecklenburg County.”
The spill, which was discovered and reported by two teenage ATV riders, was caused by a crack in the underground pipeline.
The company originally said that 63,000 gallons of gasoline escaped into the nature preserve. The total recovered so far is more than 22 times that amount.
In May 2021, the pipeline’s computers were attacked by hackers who demanded a ransom to release them. Colonial’s decision to shut down the pipeline led to long lines and panic buying that sapped gas supplies at thousands of stations.
This story was originally published June 30, 2022 at 5:24 PM.
