US EPA fines BP Amoco more than $800,000 for dumping oil into Kansas river

The company, formerly ARCO Pipeline Company agreed to pay the $804,700 penalty for dumping the oil in the river in the Kansas town of Osawatomie, 50 miles southwest of Kansas City, in January 1994, disrupting the community’s water supply for 38 days.

The US Department of Justice, on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lodged a consent decree against BP Amoco, which assumed the liabilities of ARCO when it merged with the company last year. The decree resolves a 1999 lawsuit filed by EPA against ARCO for the discharge which was caused by a break in a pipeline owned at the time by ARCO.

Residents used bottled water and water trucked in by local and state agencies until a temporary pipeline was built. In addition to the civil penalty, BP Amoco agreed to spend at least $145,300 on a supplemental environmental project involving reconstruction improvements to Osawatomie’s water intake.

The Acting Administrator of EPA Region Seven, of which Kansas is part, William Rice, applauded the joint efforts of EPA and the US Department of Justice. “This ideal use of a supplemental environmental project can reduce or prevent the intake of oil caused by similar spills in the future.”