Energy company Kinder Morgan Energy Partners will pay $2.5 million in fines, penalties and assessments following the November 2020 underground gasoline spill that spewed over 63,000 gallons of gasoline into a Walnut Creek waterway, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced.
“While we can’t undo the damage already done to the community and the environment, we are here today to secure justice for the residents of Walnut Creek and announce the sentencing of Kinder Morgan,” Bonta said at a press conference.
Maintenance workers first reported a compromised pipeline on Nov. 20, 2020 near South Broadway in Walnut Creek, and also reported the smell of gasoline near the Walnut Creek Flood Control drainage canal near Walnut Creek and Arroyo channels on Dec. 2, 2020.
Upon an extensive investigation of the incident from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, The Department of Justice deemed Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ SFPP system in violation of two state codes — California Government Code 8670.64, which penalizes those who knowingly cause an oil spill and fail to follow administrative directions, and Fish and Game Code 5650, which states it’s illegal to dump oil in the waterways.
According to the investigation, SFPP employees waited until there were visual signs of a gasoline spill before contacting the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, despite earlier warning signs. SFPP also allegedly took over two weeks to measure the size of the spill and complete an incident report to corresponding state agencies.
The energy company pleaded no contest to the criminal charges.
Along with the fine, the Contra Costa County Superior Court ordered SFPP to be on an 18-month probation.
During that time, the company must train staff on how to notify agencies of potential spills, install leak detection systems in its pipeline and improve spill volume calculation speeds.
“This plea agreement represents our strong partnership with the Attorney General’s office and to pursue companies and hold them liable and penalize when they pollute when they knowingly failed to begin appropriate cleanup measures as required by state law,” said Wildlife Officer Ryan Thiem of CDFW at the press conference.
Bonta said he’s committed to bringing justice to those who harm California’s environment and communities.
“Today’s sentencing should serve as a reminder to corporate polluters everywhere: if you endanger our communities and environment by failing to follow the law, you will be held accountable,” Bonta stated.
Great, more money for California’s moron politicians to waste…
Who gets the money? The state or Walnut Creek?
It will be divided among residents who have lived in Walnut Creek over 25 years,,,,,,NOT!
It will go in the City Council budget for new ugly buildings and sweaters for the sick rotting trees..
I remember the incident but don’t recall hearing that 68,000 gals spilled. Seems I remember a spill near there a few years back. I think the pipe was hit while digging. but it was jet fuel.
…it was in the media… it was spilling into the creek / drain near YVR… it will happen again – the pipes are very old and $2.5M is a drop in the bucket to them just a cost of doing business
@Ricardoh – the jet fuel pipe spill was a separate incident a bit south of the Broadway mall area in Walnut Creek.
One of the local water districts was installing a new pipe in the Iron Horse trail right of way. The contractor had welders working inside the pipe connecting the sections together as they dropped them in the trench. Up ahead, a backhoe operator was digging the trench. The backhoe hit a Kinder Morgan jet fuel pipe that runs from a refinery in Martinez to the San Jose airport. Fuel ran down the trench, into the open end of the pipe, and ignited as it went past the people welding. I can’t recall how many people were killed.
Kinder Morgan was deemed mostly at fault though the contractor was also assigned some liability. When installing the jet fuel pipe they had discovered the stump and root system of a large oak tree that had died and then been buried. Rather than cutting their way straight through they did a zig-zag around the tree but failed to add it to the final engineering diagrams and failed to show the deviation using above-ground markers. There apparently was a note somewhere that there was a deviation. When marking where it was safe to dig for the water pipe the word never got passed down that people were supposed to dig by hand in that area to discover the exact location of the jet fuel pipe.
The 2004 explosion killed 5 and injured 4 others.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Energy-firm-convicted-in-Walnut-Creek-pipeline-2539356.php
I remember riding my bike on the Ironhorse Trail several days after the incident. The canal the follows some of the trail smelled like fuel for a few weeks. You know a lot of that fuel ended up in the delta.
Just an FYI, these pipelines (refineries pipes?) Always have a Horrible or Zero response when you contact them.
They pulled this denial crap 10 years ago when contacting them for the pipe rupture on naval weapons land near Myrtle Dr & then again with this spill.
I responded to both of these odors(working for another Utility). And no, I didn’t investigate it beyond confirmation that it was not my companies commodity and couldn’t do much more due to time constraints other than tell nearby residents to contact the pipeline or HAZMAT.