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Landowners and the Pipeline

 

According to the Model Toxics Control Act, landowners who enter into a contractual agreement (such as an easement) are liable for any spill to neighboring property originating from their land. (RCW 70.105D.040(3)(a)(iii).)

While citizens all around Washington state and beyond are opposed to a cross Cascade pipeline, those who own property along the route have a personal connection to the debate. Many Washingtonians still remember the 1986 Renton spill which slowly leaked approximately 84,000 gallons of fuel into the area's soil and groundwater before it was detected. In 1998 ten thousand gallons of petroleum from that accident still remain in Renton's soil. Please go to our Renton pipeline spill page to learn more about this incident.

Spills such as the one in Renton happen an average of once a day nationwide and injure property owners, communities and our environment. For example, an Arco pipeline spill which occurred in Long Beach, California on May 8, 1998 sent "an estimated 10,000 gallons of black crude oil gushing onto streets and plastering a sticky mess on cars, sidewalks and front yards." One resident, Maritza Borboa, described the experience this way: "I was shaking with fear. It's terrible to be living on top of what appears to be an atomic bomb that might go off at any minute. " (Deborah Belgum, "Oil Spill Flows Through Neighborhood," Los Angeles Times, May 9, 1998.)

If you or someone you know has been asked by Olympic to sign an easement, or lives near someone who has been asked to sign an easement, don't despair! Landowners can protect themselves.

If you are a landowner along the proposed pipeline route who is against this project, you are not alone. Check out quotes and letters from some of the landowners and citizens who oppose the pipeline: