Exxon, PHMSA Withholding Key Documents on Pegasus Pipeline as Restart Nears

The southern leg of ExxonMobil's idled Pegasus oil pipeline, a segment regulators say is susceptible to seam ruptures, might be restarted as early as this week. Residents along the pipeline and others, however, have no idea whether—or how—the pipeline has been made safe because the information is not publicly available.   

"We're all still in the dark," said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit watchdog group based in Bellingham, Wash.

In a Jan. 31 letter seeking clearance to reopen the 63-year-old Pegasus southern section, Exxon told the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that it "intends to initiate restart activities no later than March 28, 2014." A copy of the two-page letter was provided to InsideClimate News by PHMSA, but it is one of many important documents that have not been publicly released or made available on the agency website dedicated to Pegasus updates. One of those key documents, the restart plan for the southern leg, is still being withheld.

"I think it's terrible that there's something going on that affects people's lives that you really can't get any information about," said Barbara Lawrence, who said the Pegasus passes under the Richland-Chambers Reservoir, where she lives on the south shore. "Information is very hard to come by ... if you're just an average person going about your life, you know nothing [about the Pegasus]. But you should know about it, because it affects you."

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