The United States and the State of North Dakota filed a complaint against Belle Fourche Pipeline Company, accusing them of violating the Clean Water Act (CWA), Pipeline Safety Act (PSA), and North Dakota state law.
The complaint says that the defendant owns and operates hundreds of miles pipelines that transport oil in the states of North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. In late 2016, one of these pipelines were damaged resulting in a leak of fourteen thousand barrels of oil into Billings County, North Dakota and several nearby bodies of water.
According to the defendant, the complaint recounts, the average flow through the pipeline at the time of the spill was around 1,000 barrels an hour; the pipeline is positioned near a High Consequence Area which the defendant noted in their written Integrity Management Plan to comply with regulations.
The complaint accuses the defendant of failing to adequately address the known risk of slope failure due to the placement of the pipeline. The complaint alleges that, prior to the spill, there were warning signs that the area of the pipeline was unstable and dangerous.
According to the complaint, the defendant was aware their methods of spill-detection were mis-calibrated prior to and at the time of the spill and made no efforts of correction.
The complaint lastly accuses the defendant of failing to shutdown the pipeline immediately once they were aware due to another method of detection: flow imbalance.
The United States seeks injunctive relief, punitive damages, and civil penalties. The State of North Dakota seeks injunctive relief and civil penalties.
