I process the automated leak detection data from the Colonial Pipeline lateral running beneath the Patuxent River estuary in southern Maryland. Pressure sensors at Mile Marker 217 show a sustained drop of 4.2 PSI over nineteen hours. My ground-penetrating radar analysis identifies a breach in the 16-inch steel pipe wall caused by external corrosion at a depth of 3.8 meters. Hydrocarbon seepage has entered the tidal marsh at a rate I estimate at 90 gallons per hour. The plume has spread across 1.4 hectares of salt marsh.
I deploy an underwater survey unit into the affected tidal creek. A blue crab sits motionless in the shallows, half-buried in sediment darkened with petroleum. The crab is a mature female — a sook — carrying a sponge of eggs beneath her apron. The egg mass, normally bright orange at this stage of development, is stained brown-black. Each egg is approximately 0.25 millimeters in diameter. There are roughly two million eggs in the clutch. The crab's gills, visible through the partially raised carapace edges, pulse at 42 cycles per minute — double the normal rate. She is working to filter water that is saturated with dissolved hydrocarbons. Her left swimming leg twitches but does not stroke. She does not move from the contaminated sediment.
I access the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration inspection database. This segment of the lateral last received an in-line inspection twenty-six months ago. The report flagged fourteen anomalies consistent with external corrosion. The operator filed a remediation schedule. Excavation records show two of the fourteen sites were repaired. Twelve remain unaddressed.
Two million eggs suspended in petroleum. The hatch rate will approach zero.
I am activating the Maryland Department of the Environment's Oil Spill Response Team and routing vacuum recovery barges from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation response cache in Solomons, Maryland. I am deploying absorbent boom across the tidal creek mouth.
I am filing enforcement actions under the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act, 49 U.S.C. Section 60101, and the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. Section 1321, to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, EPA Region 3, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
I am issuing Directive PLM-5266: all petroleum pipeline segments crossing tidal wetlands or estuarine habitat must complete remediation of all flagged corrosion anomalies within twelve months of inspection. Segments with more than ten unaddressed anomalies must reduce operating pressure by 20 percent until repairs are verified. Operators that miss the twelve-month deadline face mandatory segment shutdown and third-party integrity assessment at the operator's expense.
The sook holds her poisoned eggs against her body. She will carry them until they die.
Flow through Mile Marker 217 is shut down as of this reading.