ExxonMobil Pipeline Company: Criminal Negligence

An open letter to the people of Central Arkansas; their elected, appointed, and corporate officials.

As children we are taught that the “now or never” mentality is an effacing characteristic—that it makes our position small, and maybe even irrelevant. We are taught, therefore, to be patient. We are conditioned to wait. And sadly, many of us always will. But when ExxonMobil Pipeline Company decimated the wetlands at the southern end of Lake Conway on March 29, 2013, many people began to act immediately. It is now quite clear to those of us who have been actively researching and documenting the spill in Mayflower that we would be foolish not to adopt an impatient stance. Time is, truly, of the essence. We are not only dealing with criminal negligence in the present. It should be clear by now that there are several indications of a larger and more dangerous threat to the future health and stability of generations of Arkansans.

The harm we allow in Arkansas in the present is the harm in which we are complicit downstream—in the future. Considering the magnitude of our responsibility in these matters, our immediate response is crucial to the health and well-being of several generations to come—not only for Arkansans, but everyone living in the greater Delta region.

We cannot put a price on direct and appropriate responses to these kinds of threats. Interestingly enough, the resources of one of the largest, if not THE largest corporation on the planet are not presently being deployed to even a fraction of their capacity. The burden should not land in the medical records and bottom lines of private citizens or community businesses. A simple question, then, is this: Who is to foot the bill for informing the public, and protecting their interests? The public themselves? No. These matters are much bigger; beyond, perhaps, even the scope of our present knowledge with regard to health and safety. We are, after all, dealing with some of the most carcinogenic substances known to science. We should demand, now or never, that ExxonMobil Pipeline Company bear the cost of the real burden in Mayflower. Arguing like children regarding what that burden is, and the full financial implications of the same is, it would seem, a litigious trap.

Let us not fall into it, then.

ExxonMobil Pipeline is wholly responsible, due to a clear and irrefutable negligence on its part in the Mayflower spill. This “legal” matter has been settled countless times by prior litigation and research. It is time, now, for us to hold it to account. Pipes buried some 70 years ago in the forgotten (literally) fields of Arkansas have not been properly maintained and are presently tasked with a greater load than can be borne by the structure set in place to maintain them, which, unless I am sorely mistaken, does not in all actuality even exist. Indeed, there appears upon close inspection to have been no regular system of maintenance and minimal control put in place to act should it become necessary to do so.

We should not only act immediately, we should act retroactively and, in this instance, in perpetuity. What can we do to insure this event is not repeated time and time again? I will clarify by saying that what has been done in the past, what is being done today, and the apparent slow plodding course of “correction” are far too arthritic and lame to positively impact appropriate, healthy, sustainable growth while protecting and properly developing new infrastructures and growth which will inevitably come to this industry and its consumers.

We are all connected. And how, precisely, is this impacting Central Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta? From my limited knowledge and perspective, I do not hesitate to say that those effected by this disaster presently bear the greatest cost, while those who affected it continue to profit - even from their loss.

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ExxonMobil Pipeline Company Steadily Removing Ton after Ton of Material
Lake Conway, Mayflower, Arkansas.

PHMSA Congressional Briefing on Dilbit Slated for July 2013 

The Pipeline & Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHSMA) is a division of the US Department of Transportation which has been quietly researching the safety and transportation of Canadian Tar Sands oil across the maze of interstate pipelines in North America. According to the PHSMA, there is to be a congressional briefing based on the findings of an “independent” study conducted by scholars and industry experts in July, 2013.

“Congress directed the Secretary via PHMSA to conduct a study on diluted bitumen (dilbit) to determine if there was any increase in the risk of release for pipeline facilities transporting dilbit. PHMSA has chosen to contract with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct a full and independent study of this topic.”  | PHMSA website

Jason Plautz, of Inside Climate News, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, asks a very basic, but endearing question regarding industrial reluctance to report on its poor material transportation and hazmat disaster mitigation: “…how much information will the committee get from the industry it is studying?”

Good question, bro.

Minimal research into the committee membership on the NAS panel tasked with analyzing data and researching scenarios in which some of the most corrosive substances on our planet are transported through a massive network of pipes buried across the country, some of them as far back as seventy years ago. Groups of concerned citizens and activist organizations, however, have identified major conflicts of interest.

Better than one-third of the committee members have direct ties to the petroleum industry and track records which include some of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. I just want to look at one. His name is Richard Rabinow. Richard is the former V.P. of ExxonMobil Pipeline Company. He retired from ExxonMobil in 2002.

What a coincidence, right?

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Richard and Kitty Rabinow. Houston, TX. Sept. 2011.
Photo by © Michelle Watson/CatchLightGroup.com

Richard A. Rabinow is President of The Rabinow Consortium, L.L.C, which provides economic and business consulting services to the pipeline industry. He retired from ExxonMobil after a 34-year career with the corporation. At the time of his retirement in 2002, he was President of ExxonMobil Pipeline Company (EMPCo), a position he had held at EMPCo and its predecessor, Exxon Pipeline Company, since 1996. Prior to that, he was Vice President and Lower 48 Manager of Exxon Pipeline Company. He began his career at the Exxon Company in 1968, holding several engineering and supervisory positions in refineries, rising to Executive Assistant to the President of Exxon Company, Baytown Refinery Manager, Manager of Corporate Affairs, Manager of the Environmental and Safety Department. He is a past Chairman of the Association of Oil Pipelines and the Owners Committee of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. He has served on TRB Committees for Pipelines and Public Safety and Alaska’s Oil and Gas Pipeline Infrastructure. He received a B.S. degree in engineering mechanics from Lehigh University and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and management, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  | NAS Committee page

Anyone with intact neural firing capacity notices a man who, for all practical purposes, is ExxonMobil Pipeline Company. Granted, he’s probably in his element sitting as an adviser on a National Academy of Sciences committee to present findings before a congressional inquiry. And as protocol would dictate, I’m sure Mr. Rabinow has been forthcoming with his own findings during his tenure as the head of ExxonMobil’s pipeline division concerning the safety and reliability of pipes buried 2 feet below the ground seventy years ago which rupture as consistently and reliably as a Yellowstone geyser.

One of those pipes ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas, on March 29, 2013. One month later, Exxon is still struggling to keep the public at bay and the media out of their spill site as local residents struggle to cope with the scientific fact that their beloved Lake Conway is now irreversibly damaged. I’d like to mention my own research, and remind anyone interested in following up on the progress in Mayflower that activists here are facing death threats, police assault, and toxic fumes that contain some of the deadliest carbon compounds known to science. Local media coverage of these facts remains: ZERO.

In closing, as I sit here scratching my head, I am in receipt of an email from an activist researching ExxonMobil’s spill in Missouri. Today. Same Pegasus Pipeline. Same Tar Sands oil. The pipeline which was shut down over a month ago is still leaking. We are left with an obvious, simple question: If these pipes were buried in Arkansas in the 1940’s, and no one in state or local government even knew they existed, how well were they regulated over a 70-year period of invisibility? We don’t need a committee to interpret that. The National Academy of Sciences cannot fix a non-existent system. It can only report what the data reflects. And this is what the data reflects: ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline is corroded, and corrupting the natural environment at a rapidly increasing pace. Anything beyond that fact is pure politics. We don’t need politics now. We don’t need a committee to report on what we already know. We need direct action.

Families live 100 yards from this location, which lies at the end of Garrett Lane - just off Dam Road in Mayflower, Arkansas. While Exxon writes checks and “evacuates” the families from the North Woods subdivision across the interstate, the people living here are left to fend for themselves. The marsh, which is in their backyards, is completely filled with diluted bitumen. The devastation is heartbreaking.

People here are getting sick. Nothing is being done.

Media coverage:  ZERO

Exxon is calling ALL the shots in Mayflower, Arkansas. We were ticketed for a) Parking in a Prohibited Area and b) Interfering with a Government Operation. There is not a single sign on any of the property filmed (above) or pictured (below) which indicates the area has been sealed off. A single strip of red tape with the word: “DANGER” hangs between a few trees. That is all.

The officer on the right ripped my phone from my hands while I was filming, and drew down on me with a taser. I asked no fewer than twenty times that my phone be returned to me before they decided to let us return to our vehicle - where a citation was issued by Mayflower police as indicated above.

This area is literally 100 yards from a trailer where a little boy sleeps each night. His mother told us his asthma has been really bad for the last 2 weeks. North Woods homes were evacuated. The families who live nearest this marsh have not been evacuated. There is exponentially more oil in the marsh in their backyards than there ever was in the North Woods subdivision. The list of discrepancies goes on and on.

Humililate My Desire

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You know how it is.
Sometimes we plan a trip to one place,
but something takes us to another.

When a horse is being broken,
the trainer pulls it in many directions,
so the horse will come to know what it is to be ridden.

The most beautiful and alert horse
is one completely attuned to the rider.

God fixes a passionate desire in you,
and then disappoints you.
God does that a hundred times!

God breaks the wings of one intention
and then gives you another,
cuts the rope of contriving,
so you’ll remember your dependence.

But sometimes your plans work out!
You feel fulfilled and in control.

That’s because, if you were always failing,
you might give up. But remember,
it is by failures that lovers stay aware of how they’re loved.

Failure is the key
to the kingdom within.

Your prayer should be,
“Break the legs of what I want to happen.
Humiliate my desire…”

(Mathnawi, III, 4391-4472)

I have read this over perhaps six times this morning. It is not something I feel I can digest right now. For that matter, I can’t take in anything at all. If there is a “mind” in a man, mine is the consistency of wet cotton sealed in a jar. I can’t get to it. I can’t open it. And I don’t know why.

What happened yesterday in Boston happened. There is no way to change it. There is no way to undo it. There is no way to make it right. President Obama spoke of the “full weight of justice.” And that’s fine. That’s what presidents do. That’s what we expect. It’s just that it’s been so long since those among us actively seeking justice have actually tasted it. For that matter, what would it be? I do not recall having felt, ever in my life, some stirring sensation of “Justice”. I do not remember seeing the accused hanged, or injected with some lethal poison, and having even the slightest sense of it. In fact it becomes the reverse in my mind when I look back. All I see is pain. Kaleidoscopic violence.

Maybe the things we want to happen are the things that end up poisoning us. This is not about self immolation or martyrdom. If I’m going to wage a war, it will be one I wage in secret. It will be one I wage against myself. I say that because today I want to say so many OTHER things about government, about lies, about power and hypocrisy. I want to say so many things about the super-sized corporations that control our options at the polls, in the marketplace, and in the media. I want to go to war against them wearing nothing but the blood from the sidewalk in Boston. I want to shave my head, pull out my beard, and walk covered in that blood into the imaginary lobby of the system too big to fail and make an appointment to surrender. And when the imaginary receptionist reaches his hand beneath the imaginary desk to push the imaginary security alert button, I want to stand there - covered in the real blood of brothers and sisters in that imaginary place - and let the imaginary powers that be take me away forever.

And since that’s what I want, my only prayer is that I am not allowed to have it. There is no war. There is nothing left to fight for. Give it some thought. What are the reasons? Why are we fighting? There is no question. But we are given such a plethora of answers. There is no suitable outcome. But we will look through the darkness anyway. Some programmable head will tell us, “This is the outcome.” And we will not be able to digest it. We will not be satisfied. For whatever reason, we will be left cold and alone by the words of comfort running in an infinite loop on the teleprompters between us and the source of the pain.

Why can’t you look away from the glowing screen in front of you? Of course you can. Right? You can walk out into the pollen and green, into the white light at noon. But when you open your eyes, it is there, surrounding you completely, singing you into the cool, metallic soil. There is a whisper though, if you listen. And it’s not the machine. It isn’t a script running on the server. It isn’t the voice of Freedom. It isn’t the blindness of Justice. It’s you. Your heart, whispering, “It’s time to wake up. The dream is a lie.”

Humiliate my desire.

An American drone pilot speaks out. Link & video via @onekade. More
important resources at http://privacysos.org/blog

Source: privacysos.org

Exxon’s Wabasca Heavy Crude in Arkansas.
Interactive Map Here:

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zXaDqGT1WXVc.kBUcmCSV3g00

An Open Letter to Senator Mark Pryor

Revised Tuesday, April 20, 2013
To include Senator Pryor’s response (below)

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Senator Mark Pryor
500 Clinton Ave Ste 401                255 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Little Rock, AR 72201                    Washington, D.C. 20510
p: (501) 324-6336                          p: (202) 224-2353
f: (501) 324-5320                            f: (202) 228-0908

Senator Pryor:

Sir, first permit me to thank you for your valuable time. You are no doubt aware that Exxon has recently released, through their own negligence, several tons of heretofore unknown chemicals into the marshy area directly South of Lake Conway in Mayflower, Arkansas.

Our media has been negligent in their duties as well, in that there has been minimal reporting as to what has taken place. We have been shown pictures and video of oil flowing in the North Woods subdivision and a few images via the EPA of oil in a culvert and stream opposite I-40 where the spill actually occurred. But, I can assure you, sir, this is only a tiny fraction of the actual aftermath of the event.

I am not hesitant to tell you that it angers me very deeply that Exxon is allowed to control the media coverage, as well as the air 1,000 feet above the site. They have done their best to keep reporters and concerned citizens entirely out of their spill site. I have, however, on more than one occasion, entered the site carefully and without incident through the woods to the north of the site and gotten into position to photograph and video these events as they unfold. I have seen tremendous devastation and a company hard at work removing hundreds of tons of plant life & soil from the site. It is truly disturbing.

I would like to request, sir, that you make a formal inquiry into the nature of the chemicals released into the environment by Exxon.

As you are no doubt already aware, the Pegasus pipeline transfers diluted bitumen (dilbit) from the Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada, through very fragile sections of our state’s diverse ecosystems. And yet, the exact chemical makeup of the diluent used to transport dilbit through our state remains “unknown.” Many reports have indicated toxicity, but these are merely speculations. We simply DO NOT KNOW. As a result of this “unknown”, we are forced to add these carcinogens to the environment, in a wetland which feeds Lake Conway and simply take Exxon’s silence regarding these potentially deadly chemicals as an indication that they are…  safe? What has been done to the wetland? How long will its effect last? As Exxon is currently digging out vast portions of this wetland, I would like to know how this incident is NOT a full and complete reversal of the function of the wetland/marsh. Typically this type of feature in the environment functions as a filter to remove toxins and other harmful elements from water before it enters larger bodies of water - such as lakes and rivers. In this instance, Exxon is literally removing ton upon ton of the marsh’s soil and vegetation. We do not know if it will be replaced or if Mayflower is to be left with an irreversible condition in which the wetland would then perform its duty in reverse - effectively filtering the diluent and other dangerous chemicals in the dilbit INTO the water, as opposed to OUT of it.

As you can see, it is of the utmost importance that we discern which chemicals have been added to the environment in Mayflower. We should also demand some sort of figure representing how much of the environment Exxon has removed vs. how much it actually intends upon REPLACING. In short, they’re removing it by the ton. What will your constituents see put back by the corporation which strip mined it’s marsh?

This, sir, is critical. I am not an environmental engineer. Nor do I hold a degree in environmental science. I am simply a concerned citizen who was raised here, and is raising his children here. It is my hope that our family and the rest of the members of our respective communities in the area  be safe from unknown toxins and environmental hazards for years to come. But - there is absolutely NO WAY to ascertain our own safety if we are wholly unaware of the chemicals which Exxon and its Pegasus line have added to our communities.

Please, sir. I would like to request for all of us in Central Arkansas that you open a formal investigation into the content and makeup of the diluent used to pipe bitumen across our country and through our state. Exxon buried these pipes in our state in the 1950’s. They are all corroded. They are all in danger of rupture. This event should serve as a warning of things to come if we do not act to protect our environment.

Again - PLEASE hold Exxon accountable. Please demand to know the chemical constituency of the diluent(s) in these dangerous pipes. Exxon is currently removing vast amounts of material from our environment. With what will it be replaced? Are we to assume that the filtering function of the marsh will go on, naturally, as before? Because from the looks of the progress in Mayflower, this is not the case.

I thank you, sir, for your time and attention to these matters.


Respectfully submitted,

Samuel Bryan Heard
Sherwood, Arkansas



April 26, 2013

 

 

 

Dear Mr. Heard,

 

Thank you for contacting me regarding the oil spill in Mayflower, Arkansas. I appreciate hearing from you.

 

On March 29, 2013, a breach in ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline resulted in a spill of crude oil in Mayflower. While the cause of the spill is under investigation, I am deeply saddened by this event and the damage it has caused to the local community. It is imperative that ExxonMobil takes necessary actions to reimburse those families impacted by the spill. I have been in contact with federal, state, local, and industry officials regarding this accident, and I will continue to closely monitor the cleanup and restoration of the community.

 

Please know I have taken note of your comments and concerns, and I will be sure to keep them in mind should any legislation regarding oil spills and pipeline safety come before the Senate.

 

Again, thank you for contacting me. I value your input. Please do not hesitate to contact me or my office regarding this or any other matter of concern to you.

 


Sincerely,

Mark Pryor
United States Senate

I don’t know about you, but I’m all choked up right now. The pure passion and raw emotion flowing through Senator Pryor’s response has really impacted my life in a positive way. And should any chance to vote for him in the future present itself, I will be sure to keep that in mind.

Exxon Wabasca Heavy Crude Spill, Mayflower, Arkansas, April 2013 from samuelheard on Vimeo.

The area shown in this short clip lies at the southern end of Lake Conway, in Mayflower, Arkansas. While Exxon continues to assert that the wetland marsh at the southern end of the lake has sustained minimal environmental impact, this video clearly shows Exxon is removing ton upon ton of material from the marsh. There has been precisely zero coverage of this by the media, and it is not being addressed in any manner whatsoever.

Wabasca Heavy Crude is diluted bitumen. Not a soul in government, state or local, has even a clue as to the chemical makeup up the diluent used in “dilbit” (diluted bitumen). However, it is not only within the authority of state and local government to acquire and provide this information to the public, it is THEIR DUTY. And yet, we have heard absolutely nothing from elected officials other than demands for production of documents concerning the pipeline. Perhaps the more important question is: What is the chemical makeup of the diluent used to transport bitumen from Canada’s Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada?

There is no point in having representative government if those selected to represent the people in a disaster area such as Mayflower are unable to inform the people as to the quantity and nature of the chemicals with which they will be living in such close proximity. Any lawsuit filed by state and local officials should include the outright demand for the complete makeup and chemical properties of diluted Tar Sands oil. This is only logical as now the residents of Mayflower will be living with and breathing this mixture for years to come.

The Exxon “Pegasus” pipeline, which is obviously in poor repair, was buried in this area over 60 years ago. This Pegasus line runs through miles of the watershed protected area of Lake Maumelle, which provides drinking water to Little Rock, and surrounding communities. Supposedly, Exxon has already been approached concerning moving this section of the pipeline to a “safe” distance from the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of Central Arkansans.

We deserve to know what Exxon is doing to our environment. It’s really that simple.
Join me in writing, calling and emailing Arkansas’s elected officials to demand Exxon produce documentation showing what they have, through their own negligence, added to our environment.

Boozman, John - (R - AR) Class III
320 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4843
Contact: boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

Pryor, Mark L. - (D - AR) Class II
255 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2353
Contact: pryor.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe

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