US Pipeline Company To Pay $15Mln Fine For Largest-Ever Inland Oil Spill- Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th December, 2021) The pipeline company responsible for the largest-ever inland oil spill was sentenced to pay a $15 million fine for negligently causing the discharge of more than 700,000 barrels of waste product into US waters in 2014, the Justice Department said in a release on Monday.

"The pipeline company responsible for the discharge of 29 million gallons of oil-contaminated 'produced water' - a waste product of hydraulic fracturing - was sentenced to pay a $15 million criminal fine and serve a three year period of probation today by US District Court Judge Daniel M. Traynor in Williston, North Dakota," the Justice Department said.

The company, Summit Midstream Partners LLC, pleaded guilty to violations of the Clean Water Act associated with their contamination of Blacktail Creek in the state of North Dakota.

Summit negligently discharged more than 29 million gallons over more than 4 months time and then knowingly failed to report it, the Justice Department said.

The criminal fine is in addition to a $20 million civil penalty imposed on the company to resolve civil violations of the Clean Water Act and state water pollution control laws, the Justice Department added.