Libby Casey, APRN – Washington DC
BP Alaska has agreed to pay $25 million in civil penalties for an oil spill on the North Slope back in 2006.
Investigators say the 5,000 barrels of crude leaked because BP failed to prevent corrosion in its Alaskan pipeline system.
Assistant Attorney General Ignacio Moreno says the civil penalty announced today is the largest per barrel amount the U.S. has ever assessed for an oil spill.
This penalty should serve as a wake-up call to all pipeline operators that they will be held accountable for the safety of their operations, and their compliance with the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the pipeline safety laws.
Moreno says federal officials are also requiring it to start an inspection and preventative maintenance program for its pipelines to the tune of $60 million – on top of $200 million it’s already spent.
This agreement will protect the fragile tundra of Alaska’s North Slope from oil spills by requiring BP Alaska to adopt a comprehensive inspection and preventative maintenance program throughout BP Alaska’s 1,600-mile North Slope pipeline system.
BP is still involved in legal disputes over last year’s Deepwater Horizon blowout that killed workers and gushed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
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