Illinois was suing energy company when another of its pipelines leaked in Edwardsville
Litigation over a gasoline spill from a northeastern Illinois pipeline was ongoing when another pipeline operated by the same energy company spilled oil in Edwardsville.
On March 11, more than 163,000 gallons of oil, or about 3,900 barrels, spilled from the Edwardsville pipeline into the soil and water near the intersection of Illinois 143 and Illinois 159, including in Cahokia Creek, according to estimates by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
The pipeline is operated by Marathon Pipe Line LLC, which has been sued by the Illinois Attorney General twice in the last five years after other spills in the state.
The Illinois Attorney General’s office filed the most recent and ongoing lawsuit against Marathon in northeastern Illinois’ Iroquois County to require cleanup, water sampling and payment of civil penalties, alleging violations of environmental regulations.
In that case, work on a farm caused a gasoline spill July 14, 2021, when digging equipment hit the pipeline. The farmer and the company he hired to dig are also named in the lawsuit.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency estimated that about 1,200 barrels of gasoline spilled. Marathon reported to its federal oversight agency that 1,091 barrels spilled.
Some of the gasoline entered a drainage ditch that is connected to the Iroquois River, according to the U.S. EPA.
Cleanup work was ongoing and “unknown quantities” of gasoline remained in the soil and water around the site two weeks after the spill, according to the Illinois Attorney General’s July 29, 2021, lawsuit.
Marathon and Alec Messina, one of the lawyers representing the company, declined to comment on the pending litigation. (Messina was the director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency from 2016 to 2019.)
The court case began after the Illinois EPA asked the Illinois Attorney General to bring “enforcement action” against everyone involved in the gasoline pipeline spill.
The Illinois EPA has again asked the Illinois Attorney General to take action in the oil pipeline spill in Edwardsville. Illinois EPA spokeswoman Kim Biggs deferred comment to the Illinois Attorney General’s office about what a possible enforcement action could entail.
An Illinois Attorney General press secretary did not respond to phone calls or an email from the Belleville News-Democrat. But Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement Tuesday that his office was reviewing the Illinois EPA’s request.
“I am committed to protecting the health and safety of residents, as well as the environment, and will work with the IEPA to ensure that Marathon remediates the release,” Raoul stated.
Marathon has said in public statements that oil cleanup started March 11.
The Illinois EPA also said March 11 that the oil was contained in Edwardsville’s Cahokia Creek, which flows into the Mississippi River.
The cause of the pipeline leak in Edwardsville was not immediately clear. Federal agencies are conducting an investigation to find the cause, according to Marathon.
Company paid over $360K after 2016 diesel spill
The Illinois Attorney General had also sued Marathon Pipe Line LLC over an April 16, 2016, diesel fuel pipeline leak in Indiana that flowed into the Wabash River in Illinois.
Marathon reported that 854 barrels of fuel spilled in the 2016 incident, and it said the cause was “natural force damage” from heavy rains and floods.
The lawsuit ended in a settlement shortly after it was filed in 2018. Marathon agreed to pay a total of $362,094.74:
$335,000 in civil penalties — $226,000 to the federal government and $109,000 to the state.
$27,094.74 to reimburse the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for its response to the diesel fuel spill.
Marathon also submitted a report to the Illinois EPA after the spill detailing safety improvements to major pipeline water crossings in Illinois, according to the settlement.
