Clean up continues at site of oil spill near Highland

Crews remain on the site of an 100 barrel crude oil spill in Little Silver Creek near Highland on Saturday.

Meredith Matthews, spokesman for Plains All American Pipeline, said she did not believe oil reached Silver Lake, the water reservoir for the city of Highland, Grantfork, Pierron and St. Jacob.

“The booms were deployed very early, and it appears the spill was contained before any of it made it into the lake,” Matthews said.

Plains All American Pipeline owns the 56-mile pipeline that runs from Patoka to Wood River.

“Plains sincerely regret that this incident has occurred and apologizes for any inconvenience to residents and the impact to the environment. The company has mobilized a full response, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to minimize the impact of this release. Plains’ objectives remain the safety of response personnel and residents as well as an effective response and remediation effort,” stated a press release by the company on Saturday afternoon.

A unified command has been established with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the city of Highland and the company, the release stated. The company has brought in vacuum trucks, protective booms, response vessels and a helicopter and more than 100 workers.

The pipeline’s flow was halted Friday morning after the leak in a pipe fitting inside a pump house was discovered, the release stated. Recent rains carried the oil to Silver Creek. Booms were placed to keep the oil and its sheen from Silver Lake. A boom was also placed near the intake to the water treatment plant at the southern end of Silver Lake, according to the release.

“Third-party experts, overseen by the U.S. EPA are performing air and water monitoring and results to date have shown no impact to the public water supply and no air readings that would impact public health,” the release stated.

The spill was discovered about 7:45 a.m. on Friday by a person who saw oil being released from the Pocahontas Pump Station. Within two minutes, the pipeline was shut down, the release stated.

The spill released 4,200 gallons of oil and was caused by a blown fitting on a 20-inch pipe that carried the crude oil. The pipe was located inside a pump station.

Plains All American Pipeline also owns the pipeline that spilled more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil along the Santa Barbara County coastline in May. California Attorney General Kamala Harris was conducting criminal and civil investigations into that spill.

Last year, Illinois reported $17 million in property damages from pipeline incidents, according to the federal Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Clean up continues at site of oil spill near Highland."