Colonial is steadfast in our incident response priorities – the safety of people, environmental protection, respect for community assets, and communication. We continue to make daily progress on our environmental monitoring and remediation efforts, and we are committed to keeping the public informed.
Commitment to Regulatory Standards
Our environmental monitoring and remediation efforts continue to be conducted under the guidance of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ), in accordance with all regulatory requirements for the state of North Carolina.
Today, September 25, 2020, we received a notice from NCDEQ outlining certain steps that NCDEQ wants Colonial to take as part of the remediation and monitoring process. While we are still evaluating the notice, Colonial remains committed to working in cooperation with the NCDEQ and responding to the release consistent with all regulatory requirements.
Commitment to Community
We have completed five rounds of residential water well sampling for homes within a 1,500-foot radius of the incident location, which is the monitoring radius established by NCDEQ. 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.
Colonial has offered to connect homes within the 1,500-foot radius to the public water system and to pay for the costs associated with doing so. That offer, which was not required by NCDEQ or any other government or regulatory agency, and was first made by Colonial to residents several weeks ago, is consistent with our proactive and conservative response to the incident and with our company values and commitment to the community. Colonial will continue to monitor and test the water wells for any homeowners within the radius who do not wish to connect to public water at a scheduled interval developed in conjunction with NCDEQ and at no cost to the homeowners.
Colonial Current Actions and Environmental Update
Each day, Colonial provides an update on the status of our environmental monitoring and remediation efforts to NCDEQ. Colonial also provides similar updates, several times a week, to Mecklenburg County. As of Friday, September 25, 2020, Colonial had installed 87 monitoring and recovery wells at the site.
- 52 of those wells are monitoring wells, and 35 are recovery wells. Neither recovery nor monitoring wells are used for potable water.
- When Colonial encounters product in a monitoring or recovery 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 equipment and technologies.
- As of Thursday, September 24, 2020, Colonial had recovered 4,464 barrels of product (187,487 gallons). Colonial was able to recover more than 2,165 barrels (90,930 gallons) of product during initial response activities. Colonial has recovered an additional 2,299 barrels (96,557 gallons) of product from recovery wells that have been installed at the site.
- Surface water sampling continues to be conducted weekly and after any storm events resulting in rainfall greater than one inch. To date, no petroleum impacts have been observed at the surface water sampling locations.
Commitment to Pipeline Safety
Operating our pipeline safely is at the core of every decision we make and everything we do at Colonial. Colonial invests a significant amount of resources on system integrity each year. We also participate in ongoing industry research and development efforts used to keep the nation’s critical pipeline infrastructure operating safely.
Colonial will work with our regulators and industry partners to study this incident and determine the cause, and we want to reiterate Colonial’s commitment to conducting a full analysis of the incident.
Ongoing Remediation
Colonial remains committed to protecting public safety and restoring the natural environment, while meeting all required 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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