After more than a decade, the legal saga over an oil spill that devastated part of a Mayflower neighborhood and nearby wetlands has moved a step closer to a resolution.
Representatives of state and federal government agencies urged a federal judge on Wednesday to approve a roughly $1.8 million settlement proposed in a consent decree reached with ExxonMobil Pipeline Co.
In a document filed in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, the representatives said the Texas-based oil company did not oppose any of the proposal’s terms and said there has been no public comment on the plan.
Under the agreement, ExxonMobil and a related corporate entity, Mobile Pipe Line Co., would make a total cash payment of $1,755,082.49 plus interest for natural resource damages resulting from the spill.
“The goal of restoration is to compensate the public for injuries to natural resources and their services,” government representatives wrote in Wednesday’s filing.
Restoration projects would include preservation of about 40 acres of forested habitat, conversion of about four acres of agricultural land to over-wintering habitat suitable for migratory waterfowl, and programs to improve recreational fishing on Lake Conway.
The spill occurred on the afternoon of March 29, 2013, when the aging, 850-mile-long Pegasus Pipeline ruptured in Mayflower’s Northwoods subdivision and spilled about 3,190 barrels of massive crude oil into the neighborhood, waterways and wetlands. The oil also entered Dawson Cove, a section of Lake Conway, where it damaged or destroyed habitat; harmed plants and wildlife, including migratory birds; and impacted activities such as fishing.
An estimated 210,000 gallons of oil spilled from the pipeline. Residents of at least 22 houses had to evacuate, and ExxonMobil later bought numerous homes in the area and demolished at least three due to oil beneath the foundations.
“Approximately 16.5 acres of vegetated area in the cove were affected by the spill and associated response activities,” Wednesday’s filing says. “Contaminated soils and vegetation along the shoreline were removed to facilitate cleanup. A total of 281 dump truck loads were filled with biomass removed from the site, for a total weight of 1,829 US tons.”
In Wednesday’s filing, the federal government asked the court to approve the consent decree without further court proceedings.
“The settlement is substantively fair and is reasonable because it requires the parties who owned and operated the pipeline at the time of the spill and resulting injury to bear responsibility by making a cash payment now so that the Trustees can begin the restoration efforts without further delay,” the government wrote.
The Pegasus pipeline, most of it manufactured in 1947-48 or shortly thereafter, runs from Patoka, Illinois, to Nederland, Texas. It was shut down after the spill and has remained inactive ever since.
The Arkansas Times covered the Mayflower spill and its aftermath extensively in 2013 and 2014, aided by a crowdfunding campaign and a partnership with the publication InsideClimate News. In our June magazine, we took a look back at that coverage as part of our 50th anniversary retrospective.
