2010 settlement
In 2010, the company agreed to pay a $3.25 million civil penalty for violating the Clean Water Act and to spend $41 million to upgrade more than 10,000 miles of crude oil pipelines after the United States Environmental Protection Agency pressed charges regarding 10 pipeline spills in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Kansas between June 2004 and September 2007 that spilled over 273,000 gallons of crude oil, some of which ended up in rivers, lakes, and oceans.[29]
Little Buffalo oil spill
The 2011 Little Buffalo oil spill was one of the largest land-based oil spills in North America, the largest oil spill in Alberta in 36 years, and the second spill in Alberta within a two-week period. The Rainbow Pipeline system, owned by Plains Midstream Canada, ruptured on April 29, 2011, spilling 28,000 barrels of oil in a fairly isolated stretch of boreal forest in northern Alberta, about four miles from the nearest homes in Little Buffalo, Alberta.[30][31] The local school was closed due to concerns about the effects of fumes.[32] The incident resulted in charges against the company in 2013.[33] In 2013, the Energy Resources Conservation Board of Alberta reprimanded the company for operational failures in connection with the oil spill.[34]
Rangeland Pipeline Incident
Heavy rains in early June 2012 caused a leak on a 46-year-old Plains Midstream Canada pipeline at Jackson Creek, Alberta, a tributary of the Red Deer River, which spilled approximately 1,000-3,000 barrels of light sour crude into the Red Deer River.[35][36] The company was charged in 2014.[37]
Refugio oil spill
On May 19, 2015, a pipeline operated by the company ruptured northwest of Santa Barbara, California.[38] Within 24 hours, oil polluted approximately 9 miles of the Santa Barbara coast. The spill shut down the popular El Capitán State Beach and Campground during Memorial Day weekend, just prior to the beginning of the summer high season. The spill leaked 105,000 USgal, including 20,000 USgal that reached the Pacific Ocean.[39][40] The United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce opened an investigation into the oil spill on June 25, 2015. Companies are required to report to the National Response Center on the release of hazardous-material "at the earliest practicable moment."; however, the company did not initially report the spill.[41] According to preliminary findings of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration released in June 2015, corrosion had worn a pipeline section to less than an inch thick.[41]
Byhalia Connection pipeline
In December 2019, the company announced a joint venture with Valero Energy Corp. to build the Byhalia Connection pipeline – a crude oil pipeline system that would run 49 miles from Memphis to Marshall County, Mississippi,[45] and connect two existing crude oil pipelines: the Diamond pipeline and the Capline pipeline.[46] Concerns over the pipeline's route through the Memphis Sand aquifer, as well as the city's predominantly Black neighborhoods, sparked an opposition movement. The struggle to stop the pipeline gained widespread attention, with environmental and social justice advocates like Jane Fonda and Danny Glover lending their support.[47] Former Vice-President Al Gore called the pipeline a “reckless, racist rip-off,”[48] and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen asked President Joe Biden to consider revoking the project's federal permit.[49]
