WATER SUPPLIES, CONT. The bill’s goal is to compel companies to detect ruptures rapidly so they can speed up response time. It encourages pipeline operators to install cut-off valves that automatically sense lower flow in a pipeline and that can be automatically and manually shut off on either side of a river, stream, lake or reservoir. It also asks operators to provide training and funding for emergency responders. In addition, the law calls for operators to identify the chemical composition of oil flowing through a pipeline; remove above-ground pipeline crossings, install additional valves and valve controls; and create a risk mitigation and response plan that includes quarterly visual inspections of all pipelines. Reps. John Edwards, a Democrat of Little Rock, and co-sponsor Andy Davis, a Republican also of Little Rock, shepherded the pipeline safety bill through the Arkansas General Assembly. Edwards said he knew he had to tread carefully with the language in the bipartisan legislation because states can’t dictate pipeline safety. Simply put, PHMSA and pipeline operators can ignore local laws that try to pre-empt or override federal authority. PHMSA spokesman Damon Hill told InsideClimate News that the Arkansas law wouldn’t conflict with federal regulations because it “encourages” but doesn’t “require” stricter safety standards.
400,000 customers in and around Little Rock. The name of the law, “An Act to Improve Economic Opportunities in Arkansas by Protecting the EDWARDS Water Resources of the State” reflects his effort to attract votes among fellow legislators worried about the havoc a broken pipeline could cause if water were compromised. “For me, it goes back to the point that moral authority has no boundaries,” Edwards said about his decision to pursue legislation — even though pipeline operators in Arkansas could choose to ignore it. “As an elected official, you have an obligation to speak out and do what you can with something that impacts everyone. Clean, safe drinking water is one of those issues.” About 1,805 miles of the nation’s 194,157 miles of liquid fuel pipelines run through Arkansas. Exxon spokesman Aaron Stryk did not say whether the company would follow the Arkansas law. Instead, he said in an e-mail that “our commitment to operating in an environmentally responsible manner is anchored in our Environment Policy, which fosters appropriate operating practices and training, and requires our facilities to be designed, operated and managed with the goal of preventing environmental incidents.” Anthony Swift, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit advocacy organization, lauded Edwards for trying to send a message to the U.S. Congress and PHMSA about the current shortcomings of pipeline safety.
Edwards: Clean Water Can’t Be Compromised The Mayflower spill spurred Edwards into action because the Pegasus broke so close to Lake Maumelle, a drinking water source that serves
Counties and states can’t just throw up their hands and say they are helpless, said Swift, who has spent years studying pipeline safety issues. It’s incumbent on state officials to represent their constituents’ needs so federal regulators and the pipeline industry aren’t the only representatives at the table, he added. “When we say that all politics is local, it’s true,” he said. “If local lawmakers don’t push their federal lawmakers to change the system, the system is not going to change.”
South Dakota County Strikes Out While PHMSA sets oil pipeline safety via federal standards, local legislators are allowed to address pipeline siting and spill response issues without superseding federal powers. That means they can have a say on where a pipeline is buried and on what type of post-spill cleanup response is expected. But they cannot demand that pipeline operators lower the pressure on their lines, conduct more inspections, construct their pipelines with thicker steel or add sensors that detect spills because those safety measures are federally regulated. Local legislators in South Dakota who tried to propose an ordinance that went beyond federal pipeline siting and spill response found out just how large a hammer PHMSA can yield. More than five years ago, worries about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline prompted the Spink County Commission in South Dakota to direct its volunteer zoning board to design an ordinance just in case an oil pipeline was ever constructed in the county.
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NOVEMBER 7, 2013
ARKANSAS TIMES
Neither the first Keystone pipeline, completed in 2010, nor Keystone XL — now in its fifth year of review — would pass through Spink County, an agriculture-dependent area in the northeastern corner of the state near the Minnesota border. However, the first Keystone came within about two miles of the county’s eastern border and commissioners wanted to be proactive. They were aware that pipeline construction had caused tension with nearby landowners and they also were concerned that a pipeline spill could compromise the drinking water the rural district draws from the Missouri River. Members of the five-member zoning board, headed by one of the county commissioners, modeled their measure on a similar ordinance passed in Union County, which is in far southeastern South Dakota where Iowa and Nebraska come together, then-zoning board member Ed Fischbach said in an interview. The ordinance called on operators to bury pipelines at least 1,000 feet from residences and farms, and to establish a trust fund to reimburse landowners for spill expenses. Those are clearly pipeline siting and spill response issues. However, it also required pipeline operators to use thicker steel when constructing lines near water sources. That latter criterion raised a red flag because only federal regulators can dictate what type of steel an operator uses. As required by county procedures, the board voted on the measure twice — approving it unanimously both times — before presenting it to the commission for a final vote in 2009. “And that’s when everybody came out of the woodwork to kill it,” Fischbach said.