State sues Williams and Flint Hills

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The State of Alaska has sued Williams Alaska Petroleum Inc. and Flint Hills Resources over environmental contamination from the North Pole refinery near Fairbanks. The refinery processes some of the oil passing through the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, primarily for the production of jet fuel for use at Anchorage International Airport.

Leakage from the plant has caused contamination of groundwater around the plant by sulfolane, a chemical solvent used in the refinery.

Flint Hills, the current owner of the refinery, purchased the refinery from Williams in 2004 but now wants to close the facility, citing the environmental contamination as a factor in its closure decision. The company says that the contamination took place when Williams owned the refinery and that, because the state owned the land under the refinery at that time, Williams and the state are responsible for the pollution. Flint Hills wants any future purchaser of the refinery to takeover liability for the contamination, with that liability being reflected in the refinery’s price.

However, the state claims that sulfolane contamination continued and spread after Flint Hills acquired the refinery, and that a long history of spills and leaks of petroleum products from the refinery also continued through to 2012. Sulfolane has migrate beyond the land occupied by the refinery and Flint Hills has taken steps to provide alternative water sources for more than 300 properties impacted by contaminated water wells, the state says.

The state alleges that both Williams and Flint Hills have polluted the soil and groundwater, rendering the groundwater unfit for human consumption. And the companies have not made reasonable efforts to contain and clean up the discharges and releases, the state says. The state wants a court injunction prohibiting “continuing violations” of state environmental laws. And the state is seeking compensation for the costs to the state of responding to and cleaning up the contamination, in addition to civil penalties for infringement of state laws.

In early March Gov. Sean Parnell authorized the state to release any future purchaser of the refinery from responsibility for groundwater contamination.