A Texas-based company is trying to clear the air about the possibility of shipping crude oil through a 98-year-old pipeline under the St. Clair River. In an e-mail to BlackburnNews.com, Plains LPG Services, says the company has "no business plan to change the nature of the pipeline's operation." The email states that in 2012, the company submitted an application to federal U.S. regulators to update the legal change of ownership of six pipelines that cross the U.S./Canada border between St. Clair, Michigan and Sarnia. They were purchased from Dome Petroleum. Four of the pipelines are inactive and have been taken out of service, including two that were built in 1918. The company says the other two, built in 1971 and 1973, transport liquid petroleum gases such as butane and propane. Plains LPG says it has never transported crude oil and has no intention to transport crude through those lines.
Concern was expressed Monday by officials, including Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley, that Washington was poised to allow the shipment of crude oil through one of the century old lines and that a spill beneath the St. Clair River would be catastrophic.
They called for an extension to the period for comment which expired with virtually no submissions.
Under American regulation, if a company receiving a transfer of an existing permit plans to operate in the same way as the original permit, there’s no need for an environmental review.