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43 spills for Olympic since pipeline opened

Wednesday, August 11, 1999

By SCOTT SUNDE Mail author
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

It's not easy being a salmon in Des Moines Creek, hemmed in by suburban growth and Sea-Tac Airport.

But in the mid-1980s, local fishermen lovingly tried to restore fish runs in the creek. In the spring of 1986, they released 50,000 coho into its waters.

Then the Olympic Pipe Line Co. weighed in. On Nov. 28 of that same year, 31,000 gallons of jet fuel spilled into the creek. State officials later said a valve had been left open, allowing fuel to pour out for nine hours.

The stench of jet fuel filled the air to Puget Sound. A rainbow sheen decorated one beach. And the creek was a goner. The salmon were dead, and so, state officials said, was Des Moines Creek.

Olympic paid the state Department of Ecology a $10,000 fine, which the company paid after negotiating it down from an initial penalty of $15,000. It paid another $8,000 for the cost of the cleanup and the loss of the fish. Total damage was estimated at $1 million.

The incident was one of at least 43 spills that Olympic has reported since it opened its pipeline in 1965. Many of the smaller spills have been confined to company property, thus escaping the attention of outsiders.

The Renton-based pipeline company has never been fined by federal regulators.

Until the June 10 accident in Bellingham, none of Olympic's accidents resulted in fatalities. Several, however, have involved spills in the thousands of gallons. In all, the company has spilled almost 821,000 gallons since 1965. The federal Office of Pipeline Safety estimates that spills by Olympic since 1985 have caused nearly $2 million in property damage.

That doesn't include the most costly and devastating spill of all: the June 10 rupture in Bellingham that resulted in three deaths.

And Olympic has accounted for 65 percent of all liquid fuel spills in Washington since 1985. Three other transmission pipelines carry liquid fuel into the state.

In the beginning, there was little talk of accidents. The state's refineries needed pipelines, and the state needed the well-paying jobs the refineries provided. Washington also was thirsty for the fuel Olympic would provide.

"Petroleum products are vital to the growth of this or any state's economy," Gov. Albert Rosellini said at a 1964 ground-breaking ceremony in which the state's chief executive drove the bulldozer. "They provide the lifeblood for our growing transportation network."

All the ceremony lacked was a brass band.

There was little fanfare two years later when a contractor apparently dug into Olympic's 12-inch line in Seattle and 6,700 gallons spilled.

Only five other accidents involved so-called third-party damage, which is usually the leading cause of ruptures. Most of the accidents involved equipment failures, such as bad gaskets or gauges.

Some also were concentrated at key points in Olympic's distribution system. Five spills totaling 5,600 gallons have occurred at the Allen Station, a Skagit County facility where lines from the Anacortes refineries meet the main line.

Six spills occurred at the Renton Station, where two lines from the north converge, and spur lines branch out to Sea-Tac and Harbor Island.

Among the more significant spills:

  • Third-party damage caused a 22-inch-long hole in the pipeline near Tukwila on May 6, 1986. About 34,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled.

  • Months after a slow leak began, some residents of the Maplewood section of Renton were evacuated after fuel was discovered in their soil and groundwater. The 80,000-gallon spill forced Olympic to monitor conditions until 1993. The company returned in 1997 after more groundwater contamination was found. Olympic has spent about $1 million on cleanup.

  • The main line ruptured at Allen in Skagit County because of human error on Aug. 23, 1988. About 168,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled.

  • Only 80 gallons of fuel spilled at the Spanaway pump station in Pierce County on Jan. 17, 1991. But the spill culminated in a fire and explosion that caused $300,000 in damage.

  • Heavy rains in the spring of March 1996 had Olympic scrambling to monitor possible landslides at five different locations in southwest Washington. One was near a tiny creek in Cowlitz County that ultimately fed the Kalama River. In February 1996, company flyovers and ground inspections showed a risk of a slide, but Olympic took no action, according to a state report. On March 23, a mudslide broke the line, and 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the creek. The Ecology Department fined Olympic $7,000 and criticized the company for being unable to handle several threats of landslides at the same time.

  • A slow leak resulted in 1,000 gallons of fuel to flow into Ebey Slough near Everett in June 1996. The Ecology Department fined Olympic $6,500 for the spill. A crack had occurred in a 14-year-old buckle in the pipe. Shortly after that spill, state investigators turned up a similar buckle that could have caused a leak nearby.

  • About 277,000 gallons of gasoline poured into Bellingham creeks on June 10, 1999. A cloud of gasoline vapor ignited, burning two 10-year-old boys to death. A teenager fisherman was overcome by fumes and drowned. The spill and fire devastated Whatcom Creek, a salmon stream. The cause has yet to be determined. A criminal investigation also is under way.

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