WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th October, 2021) Buckeye and Westshore pipelines will pay $8.7 million in fines for damages caused by an oil spill near Lockport, Illinois, the US Justice Department said in a press release.
"The owner and operator of a pipeline have agreed to pay a $1.5 million civil penalty under the Clean Water Act and $7.2 million in damages and mitigation to resolve Federal and state Oil Pollution Act and Clean Water Act claims arising from a 2010 spill of over 1,800 barrels of oil into a globally rare dolomite wetland from a pipeline near Lockport, Illinois," the release said on Wednesday.
The operator of the pipeline is the Houston-based Buckeye Pipe Line Co. and the owner of the pipeline is Illinois-based West Shore Pipe Line Co., the release said.
The oil spill reportedly damaged a critical habitat that is home to the endangered Hine's emerald dragonfly, the release said.
In December 2010, a 12-inch pipeline buried in the ground leaked crude oil into the wetland next to the Illinois-Michigan canal near Lockport, the release added.
