A $230 million settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought forward by fishermen and property owners in Southern California against a Houston-based oil pipeline.
The Plains All American Pipeline was the subject of a lawsuit after thousands of barrels of crude oil spilled onto the beaches of Southern California on the Gaviota Coast. The oil spill was the result of a corroded pipeline that was leaking without warning.
In May 2015, the pipeline began seeping oil and ultimately destroyed miles of beach along the sound. The spill also impacted the local ecosystem, killing hundreds of seabirds, seals, and other wildlife. As a result of the spill, several fishermen lost their livelihoods and tourism took a hit in the area.
As a result of the settlement, Plains All American Pipeline has agreed to pay a combined $230 million to those impacted. Forty-six million dollars will go to individuals who own property along the coast. Another $184 million will go to fishermen and fish processors who were impacted by the spill.
The settlement comes after a $60 million agreement Plains reached with the federal government to settle federal allegations that the pipeline violated safety regulations.
According to the federal investigation that followed, an estimated 123,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the pacific. However, other experts estimate that the number could be as high as 630,000 gallons of oil.
Federal investigators found that Plains All American Pipeline missed several opportunities that could have prevented or limited the spill. In addition to failing to detect that the crude oil was leaking, the pipeline operators did not act quickly to mitigate the leak.
Operators of the pipeline who were based in Texas nearly 1,000 miles away oversaw the performance of the pipeline and had at some point turned off an alarm that would have notified them there was a leak. Because this alarm was turned off, there was no indication that the pipeline was leaking. Investigators detail that this avoidable misstep resulted in operators restarting the pipeline once it had been shut off. As a result, more oil was pumped into the waterway.
Following the spill, Plains All American issued an apology and moved forward with cleanup operations. According to their 2017 annual report, the spill cleanup efforts cost an estimated $330 million. In addition to the cleanup, the company moved forward with implementing a plan that would prevent such a tragedy from happening in the future.
Following the settlement, attorney Matthew Preusch who represented the plaintiff in the suit shared, "This settlement should serve as a reminder that pollution just can't be a cost of doing business, and that corporations will be held accountable for the environmental damage they cause.”
