Charges laid: Plains Midstream faces two counts two years after pipeline break

Environmental charges have been laid against Plains Midstream Canada ULC nearly two years after an oil pipeline failure that spilled 2,900 barrels of sour crude oil into the Red Deer River.

The company faces a federal charge under the Fisheries Act and a provincial charge for failing to report a release of crude oil from a pipeline, the AER announced late Friday. It is to make its first appearance in Red Deer Court Tuesday at 9:30 on the two charges.

The leak came from the company’s Rangeland pipeline on June 7, 2012, and resulted in nearly half a million litres of oil being released.

Last year, the AER launched an overall audit of Plains Midstream’s Alberta operations. The U.S.-based company had also had a pipeline leak in 2011 of 4.5 million litres of oil near Peace River in northern Alberta.

AER spokesman Darin Barter said Monday the audit is ongoing and the regulator’s extra oversight — every application must be approved by AER chief executive Jim Ellis — is delaying even routine applications from Plains Midstream.

“We look at every application they put forward and scrutinize it in light of all of the incidents and the concerns that we have,” he said.

“Just generally, when you have the leadership of the AER looking at the applications themselves, it will take quite a bit longer than a routine application.”

In March, the Alberta Energy Regulator issued a report that concluded Plains Midstream didn’t inspect the Rangeland pipeline often enough, didn’t pay enough attention to government warnings, failed to enact adequate mitigation measures once the leak occurred and communicated poorly with hundreds of people affected by the spill in June 2012.

“Plains failed to apply appropriate mitigation measures according to its own hazard assessment,” it said.

The 2012 spill — which led then-premier Alison Redford to call for a review of pipeline integrity in the province — was discovered when landowners just north of Sundre began phoning in reports of smelling rotten eggs, the telltale odour of sour gas or sour oil. The spill was soon tracked to Jackson Creek, which flows into the Red Deer River.

Heavy rains had recently swollen the flow in the creek to 10 times the normal amount.

The regulator concluded the heavy flow eroded the riverbed around the pipe and exposed it. The pipeline then experienced a “guillotine failure” at a weld circling the pipe.

Although the report concluded there were no structural problems with the 50-year-old line, the investigation found the frequency of the company’s inspections met neither provincial rules nor its own guidelines.

Plains also failed to take advantage of high stream flow warnings to isolate and purge the pipeline section, the report states.

Booms to catch oil were set up downstream on the Gleniffer reservoir, a popular boating and recreation lake. The marina and campground were closed and fishing shut down.

Drinking water was trucked in for people in 750 recreation lots and permanent homes. Rafting, fishing and guiding businesses were affected.

More than 170 people were at one time cleaning up the 475,000-litre spill with lake-surface skimmers and absorbent pads along the creek.

In a statement in March, Plains Midstream said the company is reviewing the regulator’s report and is working to meet its requirements.

Barter said the charges are the first the AER has laid since taking over that responsibility from Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development on March 29.

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