South Carolina’s Anderson County Council echoes SELC: Time to clean up gasoline spill

The Anderson County Council has passed a resolution urging pipeline company Kinder Morgan to quicken its slow pace of cleaning up a gasoline spill that happened two years ago.

SELC, representing the Savannah Riverkeeper and Upstate Forever, earlier this year filed notice that it intends to sue Kinder Morgan for violating the Clean Water Act. The spill happened when an aging patch on the underground Plantation Pipeline ruptured, sending at least 370,000 gallons of gasoline into the environment near Belton, S.C.

Two years after the spill, about 160,000 gallons of gasoline remain in the ground, wetlands and creeks. SELC obtained Kinder Morgan records that reveal the pace of the company’s cleanup has dramatically slowed.

“It’s well past time for Kinder Morgan to fully clean up the mess it made,” said SELC senior attorney Frank Holleman. “Kinder Morgan cannot be allowed to continue polluting this watershed of the Savannah River.”

The resolution passed by the council this week noted the spill “has significantly damaged and impacted private property and water” near Browns and Cupboard creeks.

The resolution also urges the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to schedule a public meeting on Kinder Morgan’s plans to clean the spill.