Justice Dept: US pipeline company fined $15 mln for largest inland oil spill
Summit Midstream Partners LLC pleaded guilty to violations of the Clean Water Act related to the contamination of Blacktail Creek in North Dakota, agreeing to pay $15 million in criminal fines.
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Crews work to recover oil from Blacktail Creek, north of Williston, N.D. (Environmental Protection Agency)
The pipeline company responsible for the largest-ever inland oil spill was sentenced to pay a $15 million fine for negligently dumping more than 700,000 barrels of waste product into US waters in 2014, according to the US Justice Department.
In a statement, the Justice Department said that "the pipeline company responsible for the discharge of 29 million gallons of oil-contaminated ‘produced water’ – a waste product of hydraulic fracturing – was sentenced to pay a $15 million criminal fine and serve a three year period of probation today by US District Court Judge Daniel M. Traynor in Williston, North Dakota."
Summit Midstream Partners LLC pleaded guilty to violations of the Clean Water Act related to the contamination of Blacktail Creek in North Dakota.
The company discharged more than 29 million gallons negligently over a four-month period and then knowingly failed to report it, according to the Justice Department.
The criminal fine comes in addition to a $20 million civil penalty imposed on the company to resolve civil violations of the Clean Water Act and state water pollution control laws.
