On July 10, 2015, Plains Pipeline, LLC reported the release of approximately 100 barrels (4,200 gallons) of crude oil from a pipeline fitting at a pump station located in Pocahontas, Bond County, Illinois (NRC Incident Report 1122376) .  The main pipeline is a 20 inch line that runs to a refinery in Wood River, Illinois.  Plains Pipeline has shut off two pipelines — Line 901 and Line 903 — in response to that incident while an investigation is conducted into the cause of the spill.  The oil is a bottomless Canadian Sour Crude Blend.  Oil discharged to the ground and into a ditch leading to the tributary of Silver Creek. Silver Creek discharges into Highland Silver Lake (a reservoir).  The Highland, Illinois, Silver Lake is a 574 acre water-body for not only water and city park recreation but also serves as the primary drinking water source for a community of approximately 10,000 people.

A O&M Plan and its amendment has been developed and approved by OSCs Maguire and Mendoza for any future concerns related to oil sheen recovery operations. 

Please refer to the attached Rapid Shoreline Assessment Map for reference.

Overall, progress has been made in recovering oil from the Site with the number of locations of heavy oil reduced to one location as of July 20, 1800 hours.  The IAP has been amended to extend until July 25.  Due to the progress in the cleanup the Planning Section has been demobed and is operating offsite. The ICS has been streamlined to an operation chief as the IC lead. Unified command with the City, IEPA, and USEPA is maintained.

The details in each division are as follows:

Division A:

Based on additional, shoreline  assessments additional cleanup has been conducted to recover oil from flushing and polling operations. All three underflow dams have been torn down  and cleaned up with two underflow dams rebuilt (1 & 3) and boom locations are being maintained.  Flushing operations were discontinued on 7/20 to let the rain flush the ditches into the dams for recovery. In addition, a animal burrow filled with oil  was found in the ditch and cleaned up on 7/20 (see rapid shoreline assessment map attached).

Shoreline Assessment teams have reported mortality of fish, frog, and crawfish all along Division A. The report has been sent to the IEPA and IDNR contacts.

Resources deployed - 200' of boom, 15 personnel, 1 vac truck, heavy equipment and hand tools.
START poling of sediments with SCAT data collection will continue until such time the OSC no longer requires this qualitative testing.     

Division B:

Sheen and oiled vegetation is sparsely present downstream of booming location 3.  Crews continue working on areas identified by shoreline assessment team, recovering collected oil and oiled vegetation from several locations along the creek.  As of 7/20 cleanup operations at two log jams where free product (crude oil) was found are where completed. (labeled 3 on the Rapid Shoreline Assessment Map, attached). 

The Fairview bridge boom location is being maintained and is capturing oil sheen. The booms have been reinforced to a cascading system of absorbent booms and a containment boom.
 
Resources deployed - 150' of boom, 30 personnel, 1 boat,  hand tools, 6 UTV, 1 trailer.

START polling of sediments with SCAT data collection will continue until such time the OSC no longer requires this qualitative testing.     

Division C:

Crews (reinforced)  continued work on areas identified by shoreline assessment team, recovering collected oil from locations along the creek. As of 7/20 crews are still working on recovering oil at a log jam (marked 3 on the attached assessment map). Boom locations at Ludwig and Pocahontas road and are capturing sheen and are being maintained. 
   
Resources deployed - 50' of boom, 28 personnel, 3 boats and hand tools

Division D:
 
OSC and START are conducting daily visual assessments of Silver Creek and the Lake to ensure the sheen is being contained and not getting past Boom location 7 on Silver Creek. The oil is contained as of the operating period.

The Shoreline Assessment Team identified a 20 yard area of oiled shoreline, debris and vegetation at the Bridge 160 boom location.  Cleanup is ongoing at this location and progress is being made.  Crews continue to spot clean various minor areas identified by the Shoreline Assessments.  All booming locations continue be monitored and maintained.

Resources deployed - 400' of boom, 16 personnel, 8 boats, hand tools

Note:  On July 18, 2015, OSC Mendoza approved the relocation of Boom Site #7 to a cascading boom system
On July 18, 2015, OSC Mendoza approved the removal of Boom Site #8. 

Division E: 
As of 7/20, observations by the OSC and START confirm that there is no oil sheen from the Plaines pipeline spill during the operating period.

Resources deployed - 200' of boom, 2 personnel and 1 boat.
The fire department's boom which was deployed on the first day of the response has been removed, cleaned and returned to the city.  The boom is staged for deployment if needed in a contingency.  The booms at the intake is being maintained until further notice.

Environmental Monitoring:

Updated shoreline assessment map attached.  The results of the assessment continue to be used to drive recovery operations.  A total of 64 surface water and 42 drinking water samples have been collected with preliminary results from 7/10, 7/11, 7/12, 7/19 and 7/21, showing no detections of crude oil constituents.  A total of 85 air samples have been collected with results pending.  A total of 1958 monitoring readings have been taken with no detections of Benzene, Hydrogen Sulfide, Hexane, Toluene, VOCs, or LEL. 
Resources deployed - 10 personnel, air monitoring and sampling equipment

The City of Highland continues to use the drinking water intake in Highland Silver Lake.  An emergency source of drinking water has been set up from a different watershed should it be needed.

At 0924 hours of July 18, 2015, the pipeline  between the Pocahontas Pumping and Wood River, Illinois, was retuned to system operation.   

2.1.2.1   Public Outreach

Senator Dick Durbin visited the Plaines Pipeline Spill Site on July 20, 2015, (11:00am to 11:50am).  OSC Mendoza, Highland's City Manager, Police Chief, Illinois EPA, and Plains Pipeline Personnel (Management) met with him at the Site of the release (Pocahontas, IL, pump station) and travelled to Fairview bridge boom site, and City of Highland water treatment/intake facility.  Plains pipeline managers briefed the Senator and showed him photos showing the progress of the cleanup from the first day of the spill to current conditions.   Senator Durbin asked the Plains people lot of questions on the cause of the release, what failed, how the spill was discovered, and their their response timeframe, (mostly PHMSA related questions).  OSC Mendoza showed the Senator the extent of the oil contamination in relation to the intake at Silver Lake and the status of the cleanup in general. Senator Durbin thanked everyone and left to another venue at about 11:50am.   The media was invited but did not show up.

2.1.3 Enforcement Activities, Identity of Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs)

A Notice of Federal Interest was issued to Plains Pipeline on 7/11/2015.

2.1.4 Progress Metrics

• Monitoring of protection boom at drinking water intake in Silver Lake
• Monitoring and sampling of drinking water intake
• Containment and recovery of oil within ditches, Silver Creek and Silver Lake
• Assessment of extent of contamination
• Continue water sampling around water intake
• Conduct environmental sampling per the approved plan
• Monitor waste streams and reporting to UC daily
• Determine scope of next operational period
• Continue participation in the reduced size of ICS structure to plan, strategize and execute objectives and tactics as related to current and next operational period for logistics and planning requirements.  
• Perform Rapid Shoreline Assessments throughout all divisions.
• Flush ditches near site to remove oil from surfaces and collect at underflow dams.
• Continue Rapid Shoreline Re-assessments in Divisions A - D.

2.2.1.2 Next Steps

Continue the aggressive protection of the municipal water supply intake. 

Identify response milestones to move into recovery phase. 

Work with the City of Highland to support their decision to reopen Highland Silver Lake to small craft access and use.


2.2.2 Issues

At this time, no recreational boats will be allowed to access Silver Lake.  The City of Highland has elected to close the Silver Lake Park area due to concerns of safety from vehicular traffic.   USEPA is working with the City of Highland to resume normal boat launch and recreational water use activities as soon as possible.  

Plains and USEPA are planning to identify an upstream (background) location and sample for used oil, pesticide, and herbicide substances that cause a sheen. The purpose is to provide unified command with information to determine if cleanup goals have been achieved.