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WildEarth Guardians Files Suit to Enforce Oil and Gas Pipeline Inspection Laws on American Public Lands
“Our safety regulators are unfortunately asleep on the job,” said Becca Fischer, a Climate Guardian and attorney on the case. “For too long, they’ve turned a blind eye to protecting our safety and our public lands; this has to stop.”
The suit comes as the Trump Administration is ramping up drilling and fracking on public lands across the U.S., but mainly in the Rocky Mountain states of Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The complaint, filed in federal court in Montana, targets the Transportation Department’s failure to ensure oil and gas pipelines on public lands are inspected at least once a year, as required by the U.S. Mineral Leasing Act.
An investigation by WildEarth Guardians, including multiple Freedom of Information Act requests, found the Department has no documentation that any pipeline on public lands is being inspected at this frequency.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, oil and gas pipelines impact nearly 700,000 acres of public lands in the U.S. primarily in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, which are major oil and gas producers. Although the Bureau of Land Management approves pipelines, the Department of Transportation is tasked with ensuring their safety.
In conjunction with today’s lawsuit, WildEarth Guardians also filed a request with the Bureau of Land Management to impose a moratorium on new oil and gas pipeline right-of-way approvals unless and until the Transportation Department conducts its legally required inspections.
“Congress was clear in directing the Transportation Department to annually inspect oil and gas pipelines underneath federal lands,” said Samantha Ruscavage-Barz, Managing Attorney for WildEarth Guardians. “The fact that inspections aren’t occurring means that our health, safety, and environment are in danger.”
The United States is crossed by over 2.6 million miles of oil and gas pipelines. Although no federal agency tracks the exact mileage of pipelines under federal public lands, a review of Bureau of Land Management data indicates there are nearly 120,000 miles.
Making matters worse, pipelines in rural areas, where much of our public lands are located, are frequently unregulated. According to a Congressional Research Service report on pipeline safety, only 7% of natural gas gathering lines, which transport gas from wells to larger transmission lines, are regulated. Because of the fracking boom in the Rocky Mountain west, gathering lines made up approximately 45% of the planned gas pipeline mileage in the U.S.
Transportation Department regulations also specifically exempt oil flow lines, small lines which connect directly to wells, from regulation. A 2017 review of records kept by state agencies on oil and gas spills found that flow lines have been responsible for more than 7,000 spills, leaks, and accidents since 2009.
The suit comes as a review of Bureau of Land Management data also found that spills, leaks, fires, and other disasters occur on public lands on average at least once daily.
Under the Trump Administration, there has been a ramp up in oil and gas drilling and fracking on public lands across the Rocky Mountain west, including plans for new pipelines. The risks to public health and the environment are growing as inspections falter.
In 2017, the Transportation Department reported 649 pipeline incidents in the U.S. costing $270 million. The Department does not track how many of these incidents impacted federal public lands.
“The fracking boom in the Rocky Mountain West is taxing existing pipeline infrastructure and putting our lands at risk like never before,” said Fischer. “The Trump Administration is breaking the law. For our health and safety, it’s time to put on the brakes and start enforcing accountability.”
For more information, check out Guardians’ in-depth blog post and interactive story map.