Colonial Pipeline continues to work on site remediation while remaining focused on our key priorities — protecting the safety of people and the environment.
On Friday, August 21, Huntersville Mayor John Aneralla conducted a Q&A session with experts from Mecklenburg County Emergency Management, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) and Colonial Pipeline. Questions were submitted by residents to the Mayor’s office or Colonial Pipeline. The video can be viewed below as part of the ongoing communications efforts to keep residents informed.
Huntersville-Concord Road is scheduled to reopen on Monday, August 24. Until the re-opening, the temporary traffic detour around the work site via Glendale Drive, Ramah Church Road and Hiwassee Road remains in effect.
Work teams continue to conduct ongoing environmental monitoring under the guidance of the NCDEQ. Colonial will remain in the community as long as necessary to sample and test wells within a 2,000-foot radius of the product release, which exceeds the 1,500-foot requirement by NCDEQ. To date, tests have been conducted on 16 wells and no petroleum constituents have been detected. Colonial is sharing results with individual landowners. Colonial has also delivered more than 500 letters to residents near the release site, and responded to numerous phone calls, emails and web form submissions to keep residents updated on site remediation work.
We continue to provide updates through our response website at https://sr2448.colonialresponse.com In response to inquiries from residents, we have updated the FAQ portion of the site with additional information. Residents are welcome to submit questions to Colonial through the site, and a Colonial representative will respond.
Colonial appreciates the ongoing support and open line of communication with local, state and federal agencies, including the Huntersville Fire and Police Departments, the City of Huntersville, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Stormwater Services, Charlotte Water, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management, Mecklenburg Public Health, Mecklenburg County Parks & Recreation, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, the North Carolina Emergency Management, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region IV.
We will continue to work together to ensure public safety and protection of the local environment.
The following summarizes and updates key response activities at this time:
- The leak is stopped and the vast majority of the release has been recovered, with recovery continuing.
- The pipeline has been restarted in accordance with Colonial’s operating procedures.
- Colonial continues to operate in an Incident Command System (ICS) to ensure a well-managed response, in conjunction with the support and collaboration from local response partners.
- A consistent open line of communication continues with local, state and federal agencies, including the Huntersville Fire and Police Departments, the City of Huntersville, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Stormwater Services, Charlotte Water, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management, Mecklenburg Public Health, Mecklenburg County Parks & Recreation, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, the North Carolina Emergency Management, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region IV.
- We are sharing environmental testing results with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, NC Department of Environmental Quality, and Mecklenburg County.
- Mecklenburg County Public Health has been updated on the situation and has stated they do not believe there is any threat to potable drinking water wells.
- Colonial has successfully implemented proactive measures to protect the closest surface waters, the North Prong of Clark Creek. These are precautionary measures and we continue to monitor the situation closely as we work with local and state resources. The creek is currently unaffected and is being closely monitored.
- Colonial continues to reach out to local landowners to provide information on our response efforts.
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