Saturday, July 18, 2015

Plains All American Pipeline : Highland plans to reopen Silver Lake on Monday following oil spill

July 17, 2015


Highland officials are planning to reopen Silver Lake on Monday, according to City Manager Mark Latham. The lake was forced to close last Friday as a result of an oil spill that dumped more than 4,000 gallons of crude into a nearby creek.






City officials had considered opening the lake to traffic as early as this weekend, but they are now pushing back the opening a couple more days, citing safety concerns.

Andrew Maguire, an on-scene coordinator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 office, said it will be ultimately up to Latham and Highland Police Chief Terry Bell on when the lake will reopen.

"I am going to advise them to what point they reopen," Maguire said. When it does reopen, "we will make sure we put in whatever pieces need to put in to allow it to open."

The water conditions have improved dramatically in the past seven days, according to Maguire, especially in the area of the boat launching pad on Prairie Road in rural Grantfork.

"We have contained the spill and cleaned a lot of the oil out," he said. "We were able to contain the spill to up near Grantfork and to where the release happened."

Meanwhile, the cleanup continues after last Friday's oil spill dumped more than 4,000 gallons of crude into a nearby creek.

Houston-based Plains All-American Pipeline says it has deployed 2,700 booms in response to the pipeline break at a pump station near Highland.

The company said it contained "a portion" of the 4,200-gallon spill on site before it reached Little Silver Creek, which feeds into Silver Lake. Silver Lake serves as Highland's water supply. Highland also supplies water to the villages of Grantfork, Pierron and St. Jacob from the lake.

Maguire said most of the ditches near the site of the spill at a pumping station near Baurmann and Pocahontas roads, near the Bond-Madison counties line, have improved "by 75 percent" over the past seven days.

On Friday morning, Latham and Congressman John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, took a 30-minute helicopter ride over the site.

They each said they were impressed with Plains All-American Pipeline ongoing clean up efforts.

Shimkus said he believes the response was "adequate. I am confident that all necessary steps are being taken to contain and clean up the oil," he said.
Shimkus said he was "especially pleased by the cooperation between landowners, Highland, Plains and government regulators.

"I will continue to monitor the cleanup and, more broadly, is working with PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) to see that mandates required by the Pipeline Safety Act of 2011 are fully implemented," he added.

On Tuesday, Shimkus questioned PHMSA Interim Director Stacy Cummings about the situation during an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing.
"I asked Cummings to explain how the criteria and benchmarks in PHMSA's Corrective Action Order could provide the local community with some certainty that the pipeline will be safe when it resumes operation," he said.

According to Shimkus, Cummings said the order, which was issued on Tuesday, would look at pipe fittings across the pipeline network as well as how long it took for Plains to notify emergency responders of the situation.

Shimkus also asked Cummings what actions Congress could take to help PHMSA collect data from states and localities about drinking water supplies to aid in future analysis, planning and responses.


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Leak at pumping station has oil running down eastern Madison County ditches


Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article26976886.html#storylink=cpy