Company runs ads apologizing for S.C. spill

Web posted March 2, 1999

Associated Press

ANDERSON, S.C. -- Colonial Pipeline took out full-page advertisements in three newspapers Monday to apologize for a fuel spill in South Carolina.

``We apologize!'' said the headline on the ads in The New York Times, The Greenville (S.C.) News and The Atlanta JournalConstitution.

The ads were part of last week's plea bargain in which Colonial paid a $7 million fine for the spill of nearly 1 million gallons of diesel fuel into the Reedy River.

The Atlanta-based company also was put on five years' probation by U.S. District Judge G. Ross Anderson Jr. of South Carolina.

The 1996 spill, caused by a pipeline rupture near Simpsonville, S.C., killed 35,000 fish and affected 23 miles of the river, prosecutors said. It was South Carolina's largest oil spill, and the U.S. Justice Department said it was the sixth largest nationally.

Company spokesman Noel Griese said Monday's ads cost a total of more than $100,000.

The ads said, ``The company's stated goals include operating a spill-free system and ensuring a clean and healthy environment. With the Reedy River spill, the company failed to live up to these goals.

``Colonial is sincerely striving to learn from this accident and to improve its environmental programs and, in doing so, earn the reputation of being a responsible environmental neighbor.''

The company, which pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating the Clean Water Act, must also develop an extensive program to prevent and detect any further environmental violations

Colonial is the nation's largest pipeline company. Its owners include oil giants Mobil, Amoco and Texaco.