Texas company to pay $170K for 2010 oil spill in Big Horn County
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency announced Wednesday it had reached a settlement with a
Texas-based company over a 2010 oil spill in Big Horn County.
Enduro
Resource Partners, of Fort Worth, Texas, will pay $170,000 to resolve
alleged Clean Water Act violations resulting from the March 10 spill,
which saw 162 barrels of crude discharged from a pipeline into a
tributary of the Nowood River.
“This settlement
underscores the importance of EPA’s oil spill prevention requirements in
safeguarding our rivers and streams,” said Shaun McGrath, regional
administrator for the EPA‘s Denver office.
The settlement was complicated by a series of acquisitions following the spill.
Cottonwood
Creek Inc. operated the oil gathering station, Bonanza Station, at the
time of the spill. Cottonwood Creek sold Bonanza Station to Enduro
Partners following the incident. And Hiland Partners, Cottonwood Creek's
parent company, was acquired by Kinder Morgan earlier this year.
The
final agreement was signed by Kinder Morgan executives, but will see
Enduro pay the fine, EPA officials said. Kinder Morgan is based in
Houston.
"This settlement relates to an oil spill that
occurred on an asset that Kinder Morgan never owned or operated," said
Sara Loeffelholz Hughes, a company spokeswoman. "Kinder Morgan never
owned the asset, but because we purchased Cottonwood Creek as part of
the Hiland acquisition earlier this year, we signed the settlement on
behalf of Cottonwood Creek."
She noted the spill has been fully remediated.
The government had argued Cottonwood Creek failed to develop spill prevention and facility response plans prior to the incident.
The
settlement acknowledged the company is no longer the operator of the
facility. It noted Cottonwood Creek had removed the pipeline responsible
for the discharge prior to selling the facility.
"Cottonwood
Creek was responsive in putting the necessary preventative and response
measures in place, and EPA will ensure that the station’s current
operators continue to comply with these critical environmental
requirements,” McGrath said.
The $170,000 fine will be deposited in a trust fund used by federal agencies to respond to oil spills and toxic discharges.