One year ago this week, an accident ruptured a pipeline in North Burnaby and sent nearly a quarter of a million litres of crude oil spurting over homes and into Burrard Inlet. Below, in the first part of a special report, reporter Brooke Larsen looks at the impact of the spill a year later.

Burnaby Now
Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A year after a massive oil spill wreaked havoc on Inlet Drive, investigators aren't saying what went wrong.

http://www.canada.com/burnabynow/news/story.html?id=8c98b825-e95e-4fac-a...

Are the feds letting a major Port polluter off easy?

http://wweek.com/editorial/3440/11374/

BY JAMES PITKIN | jpitkin at wweek dot com

[August 13th, 2008]

Five years after Houston-based energy giant Kinder Morgan paid a ship captain at the Port of Portland to illegally dump material at sea, a judge is set to fine the company $240,000 for violating environmental rules.

But at a sentencing hearing scheduled Wednesday, Aug. 13, that prosecutors and company officials say should end the long-running case, the original whistleblower plans to tell U.S. District Court Judge Garr King that the government’s deal with Kinder Morgan is a whitewash.

An underground gas line punctured by construction workers spilled more than 19,000 gallons of diesel this afternoon in Indio, shutting down a stretch of Indio Boulevard and Union Pacific Railroad service, fire officials said.
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Indio Boulevard, between Madison and Jefferson streets is expected to be closed, for up to 10 hours for cleanup following the 1 p.m. spill, Indio Police Spokesman Ben Guitron said.

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080604/NEWS01/80604...

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/590132.html

Bad gasoline stalls Valley motorists
Diesel fuel mix wrongly shipped from tank farm, sold as regular unleaded.

By James Guy / The Fresno Bee
05/09/08

Tainted gasoline sold at Central Valley stations stalled vehicle engines Friday and left some motorists scrambling to find a shop for weekend repairs.

Drivers who purchased unleaded regular from about 16 stations in a 50-mile radius around Fresno ended up with gasoline that was inadvertently mixed with diesel fuel at a tank farm operated by Kinder Morgan at Central and Maple avenues.

PAUL & SUGERMAN, PC.

http://www.pspc.com/2008/04/kinder-morgan-finally-fined

This news article seems so appropriate for an Earth Day item. The U.S. Attorney in Oregon announced a major victory in a case against a tenant of our own local port. That’s right. The port, a public body, leases a portion of the Port of Portland to a company called Kinder Morgan.

Kinder Morgan imports and exports stuff. Tons of stuff. Stuff that gets in the river but should go to toxic waste dumps. Stuff that accumlates in piles. Stuff like potassium chloride or potash.

http://www.indeed.com/forum/cmp/Kinder-Morgan

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 2:00 PM PDT
By The Associated Press

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/04/22/breaking_news/doc480e517e36d56898...

PORTLAND — Federal prosecutors in Oregon had a little Earth Day message for a Louisiana shipping company — pay $240,000 for illegally dumping fertilizer in the ocean to avoid landfill fees.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Portland announced Tuesday it has charged Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals Inc. with violation of the federal Ocean Dumping Act.

As part of a settlement, the company is expected to pay the nearly quarter million-dollar fine — with a third going to Oregon environmental projects managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Fund.

Federal prosecutors say they learned about the illegal dumping when inspectors for a Kinder Morgan customer discovered a bulk cargo vessel taking on an unscheduled load of potash — a fertilizer known as “light salt.”

Portland Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/04/21/daily17.html

Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals Inc. has reached an agreement to settle a felony charge of ocean dumping.

On Friday, Oregon U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut filed felony charges against the company, which is a Louisiana-based subsidiary of Houston-based Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP . The criminal charges alleged that in August 2003 a Kinder Morgan employee at the company's Port of Portland terminal paid a ship captain to illegally dump potash in the Pacific Ocean.

Monday, April 21, 2008 - 2:53 PM PDT

Portland Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/04/21/daily9.html

U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut filed felony charges Friday against Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals Inc. for "transporting material for dumping in ocean waters without a permit."

Kinder Morgan is a large energy and pipeline company.

The one-page court document filed Friday does not elaborate on the charges against Kinder Morgan. It alleges that in August 2003 the company "knowingly, by and through its agents and employees, caused to be transported from the United States material, for the purpose of dumping the material into ocean waters, without a permit issued pursuant to the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act."

J. Ronald Sutcliffe, the Idaho-based Department of Justice attorney handling the case, declined comment.

The attorney listed on court paperwork for Kinder Morgan did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

The charge is likely related to a whistleblower claim filed with the Environmental Protection Agency against the company by former Port of Portland dockworker Jerry Cressa.

As reported by Willamette Week in August, Cressa claimed that in the fall of 2003 Kinder Morgan paid a freighter captain at the Port of Portland to haul 159 tons of contaminated potash out to sea and dump it.

Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., subsequently contacted the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Justice and U.S. Coast Guard to inquire about the allegation.

2008-04-08 - Filings made public today, showed Agran Libbie completely dumped all -110,136 shares they owned of Kinder Morgan Energy Partnersl P (KMP).