Central Arkansas Water is urging a federal regulatory agency to uphold fines and new safety requirements for Exxon Mobil regarding a 2013 oil spill in Mayflower, saying in a letter that the oil giant fails to "grasp the gravity of the situation."
Exxon Mobil is also using various tactics to evade federal regulations, Central Arkansas Water spokesman John Tynan said in the letter to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that was released Monday.
Exxon Mobil Corp. spokesman Christian Flathman said Monday that the company had no comment regarding the letter, but he said subsidiary Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. "has no immediate plans for submitting a remedial work plan" -- a necessary precursor to the pipeline's resuming operation.
"In the meantime, we will continue to ensure that the maintenance and any future operation of this pipeline remains in compliance with U.S. Department of Transportation regulations," Flathman said in an email.
Exxon Mobil's Pegasus pipeline, built in 1947-48, cracked open March 29, 2013, in Mayflower's Northwoods subdivision, sending heavy crude through the neighborhood and into drainage ditches and a cove of Lake Conway.
About 13.5 miles of the pipeline lie in the Lake Maumelle watershed, which provides drinking water for more than 400,000 central Arkansans. Central Arkansas Water has repeatedly urged Exxon Mobil to move the pipeline if it is to be restarted.
The roughly 650-mile northern section of the 850-mile-long line pipeline that runs from the Texas Gulf Coast to Patoka, Ill., has remained shut down since the accident. Only the 211-mile southern section has resumed service.
"If the Pegasus is restarted or any similar pipelines are operated under ExxonMobil's current integrity management plan without modification as PHMSA required in the Final Order and Compliance Order ... it is just a matter of time until another in-service rupture occurs, hopefully outside of a drinking water watershed," the utility wrote in the letter dated Friday.
In October, the pipeline safety administration fined Exxon Mobil $2,630,400 after ruling that the company had committed nine violations dealing with integrity management, or safety practices.
Among other things, the federal agency ordered the company to modify its integrity management program to ensure that risks are adequately identified, especially those common to pre-1970 pipe made with electric resistance welding. The industry has known for decades that such pipe -- which no longer is made -- is prone to the type of seam cracks that ruptured in the Mayflower segment of the Pegasus pipeline.
The agency also ordered the company to submit a spreadsheet identifying all such pre-1970 pipe covered by the company's integrity management program and subject to federal regulation for pipelines carrying hazardous wastes.
Exxon Mobil appealed.
In asking the safety administration to reject the appeal, Central Arkansas Water said it considers the agency's fines and orders already "woefully inadequate."
The utility said the pipeline industry knows that "the best technology used to deal with such [electric resistance welding] threats are high stress hydrostatic tests that occur at pressure levels well above minimum federal pipeline safety standards for 'new pipe.'"
Yet, the utility said, Exxon Mobil "lowered its target maximum operating pressure ... after numerous seam failures on the Pegasus" during hydrotests in 2005 and 2006. "Such a deliberate action suggests knowledge of pipeline seam failure susceptibility and specific actions to avoid assessing and truly addressing the risks."
The oil company's "statement that it is impossible to 'reliably detect' segments of pipelines that are at risk of seam failure is extremely troubling," the utility said.
First, it suggests "a "lack of understanding or willingness to use sufficient hydrostatic testing to adequately test pipe that has a heightened risk profile for seam failure," the utility said. "Second, and perhaps most concerning to CAW, the statement suggests the cavalier attitude with which ExxonMobil seeks to operate its pipelines."
Even after Exxon Mobil lowered the pressure during the 2005-06 tests, the utility noted, the Pegasus had seven additional ruptures, including two in the Lake Maumelle watershed. During these tests, the line was not operating.
"Once it was restarted, the Pegasus operated for only [seven] years under its current operational conditions before the disastrous spill in Mayflower occurred," the utility said.
Exxon Mobil has said that if the federal agency's final order stands, "this Company and the entire industry would be required to make significant changes to their pipeline integrity management programs without clear regulations or fair notice."
"It would cost [the] industry hundreds of millions of dollars in applying additional and more frequent seam tools or in performing potentially unnecessary and destructive hydrotests," the company added.
State Desk on 02/02/2016