Colonial remains committed to the Huntersville community and the health and safety of its residents and the environment. We value the relationships that we have built here over 50+ years, and we want to continue to build on that foundation as we move forward.
Commitment to Community
Colonial is steadfast in our incident response priorities – the safety of people, environmental protection, respect for community assets, and communication – and we are committed to sharing information about the incident and our remediation efforts with residents, regulators, and the broader public on an ongoing basis.
Our environmental and remediation efforts are being conducted under the guidance of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ). As of Friday September 11, a fourth round of residential water well sampling was completed last week for homes within a 1,500-foot radius of the incident location, which is the monitoring radius established by NCDEQ. We want to assure the community that there have been no detections of any petroleum constituents in any of the samples that we have taken from any of the residential water wells.
Nevertheless, as a proactive measure, we have offered to connect residents within the 1,500-foot radius to the public water system and to pay for the costs associated with doing so. We are not required by NCDEQ, or any other government or regulatory agency, to take this step; however, it is consistent with our proactive and conservative response to the incident, as well as with our company values and our commitment to the community. Homeowners who have been offered the opportunity to connect to public water are free to decline the offer, and if they do so, Colonial will continue to monitor and test their water wells, at no cost to the homeowners, for the foreseeable future.
Colonial Current Actions and Environmental Update
Colonial continues to provide information about the incident and our remediation efforts to various regulatory agencies on a regular basis. An immediate notification, based on the best available data at that time, was provided to the National Response Center (NRC), per regulatory requirements, on August 14, 2020. This evening, an additional report will be filed with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). That report will indicate that Colonial now estimates that approximately 6,490 barrels or 272,580 gallons of gasoline were released from the pipeline during the incident, and approximately half of the released amount has been recovered to date. These numbers, which are still an estimate, are based on additional data that Colonial has obtained and analyzed over the course of the last several weeks. The numbers may need to be revised again as the remediation project continues, and we are committed to keeping the public informed.
- We continue to sample residential water wells within a 1,500-foot radius of the release site. There have been no detections of petroleum constituents in any of the samples that have been taken from any of the residential water wells.
- As of Saturday, September 12, 2020, Colonial had installed 77 wells at the site specifically as part of the response process.
- Of the 77 wells installed, 47 have been installed as monitoring wells, and 30 are recovery wells. Neither are used for potable water.
- When Colonial encounters product in a monitoring well, product recovery begins immediately in an effort to control and limit any further migration. Colonial also is supplementing our current recovery systems with additional technologies.
- Surface water sampling continues to be conducted weekly and after any qualifying storm events.
- Colonial is working to develop and submit an Initial Abatement Report, Comprehensive Site Assessment Report, and a Corrective Action Plan to NCDEQ.
Ongoing Remediation
Colonial remains committed throughout the remediation process, working under the guidance of our regulators, to protect public safety and restore the natural environment, while meeting all regulatory standards.
For additional information on Colonial’s response efforts, please visit our FAQs section, which we continue to update periodically as a follow-up to questions received.
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