Lawmaker plans to introduce several bills in response to Olympic Pipeline oil spill
SEATTLE — The Olympic Pipeline, east of Everett, has had service partially restored after being shut down for more than a week due to an oil leak.
This is the third leak the pipeline has had in five years: one in 2020, again in 2023, and this most recent one.
“I think you can see we have an integrity issue and there’s a trend going in the wrong direction that we need to do something about,” said State Sen. Matt Boehnke (R -Kennewick).
The most recent leak has prompted questions in Olympia about the state’s laws related to both accountability and prevention.
Both Democrats and Republicans in Washington state agree that there have been too many pipeline leaks, but disagree on the next steps.
Washington House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon (D-West Seattle) said the state already has “some of the strongest oil spill prevention and response laws in the country.”
Boehnke disagrees and said he plans to introduce three to six bills in the coming week to address oil spills in the state.
Boehnke is the ranking member of the Washington Senate Environment, Energy & Technology Committee; that’s the committee that works on environmental polices—including oil spill prevention.
“These leaks are now becoming more routine, and they shouldn’t be. We should be able to prevent a lot of these,” Boehnke said. “And we should expect better for Washingtonians.”
Boehnke said one of the first ways state law can address this is by “being open and transparent about accountability.” He noted that BP was found liable and fined for the 2023 Olympic Pipeline spill nearly two years later to the day.
“How are auditing, mandating and looking at these enforcement timelines?” Boehnke said. “Why is it taking so long to figure out what the issue was?”
From where he stands, he thinks that leak detection polices can be updated. Boehnke called it “unacceptable” that a farmer had to find the issue, not the operator of the pipeline, BP. So, he wants to find ways to require, or at least help ensure, that companies like BP use emerging technologies.
“Where we can leverage AI to do a better job of detecting these leaks,” he said. “Or really even getting ahead of it for preventative corrosion maintenance requirements that are currently honor systems.”
Boehnke said he will likely draft the bills to strengthen transparency and leverage new technologies early next week, but he is not confident that they will advance.
Boehnke said the onus should not just fall on Washington to strengthen laws, but also on the federal government.
“These are critical infrastructures that we have to have to run our day-to-day lives,” he said.
Lawmakers return to session in January.