Nothing says “Happy Anniversary” quite as startlingly as a 46-count criminal indictment, as Plains All-American Pipeline Company found out the hard way this week. At a joint Tuesday morning press conference, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley and California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced that four felony and 42 misdemeanor criminal charges would be filed against Plains for last May’s pipeline rupture on the mountain side of the freeway by Refugio Beach. Because of that spill, an estimated 142,000 gallons of crude oil escaped; 21,000 gallons made its way onto the beach and into the ocean. Dudley and Harris declined to provide many details about the specific counts, explaining the indictment could not be made public until after the arrests are made on June 2. The arraignment is scheduled for June 6.
According to a Plains press release, 10 of the counts relate to the actual release of crude oil and the alleged failure of Plains officials to report the spill in a timely fashion to the proper government agencies. The rest pertain to wildlife reportedly killed as a result of the spill. Of the 46 charges, 45 have been leveled against Plains All American, the corporation; one was filed against a Plains employee, James Buchanan, an Environmental and Regulatory Compliance officer. Dudley declined to specify what Buchanan is accused of other than to indicate it’s a misdemeanor rather than a felony. If found guilty and given the maximum sentence, Dudley said, Buchanan could face as many as three years in county jail, but she stressed the possibility was extremely unlikely given the acute shortage of jail beds, among other reasons.
This may well be the first time criminal charges have been brought by Santa Barbara prosecutors for any environmental transgression; Dudley said she didn’t know of any before. Plains All American has been fined $48 million in 28 separate complaints filed by the Environmental Protection Agency since 2010, but this may be the first time the pipeline company — one of the largest operators in the country — has faced criminal charges.
