Colonial Pipeline Seeks To Postpone New Estimates On Historic NC Spill

In a recently released letter by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Colonial Pipeline — who has been asked for a third revised volume estimate for their massive spill in Huntersville, NC last year — has asked State regulators to allow them to postpone releasing new numbers for the leak until an unspecified date. The reason for the request, according to Colonial Pipeline, is that the updated model which they plan to use would need additional data that would need to be collected “under static conditions” in the northern portion of the site, where a second evaluation Colonial conducted indicated that their product had gone deeper than previously realized —or, “below the water table” as the letter states (although ongoing testing being oversaw by NCDEQ has not found any petroleum related contaminants in any of the drinking water near the site).

“To collect the optimal number of representative samples throughout the vertical and horizontal extent of (the release), recovery wells and hydraulic controls would need to cease operation for a period of time, possibly for several weeks.” The letter continues, “At this time, Colonial believes it would be most protective to postpone collection of the needed saturation and geologic information from the northern area. Additional data collection should occur only after…