Civil lawsuit filed against BP by the US for oil spills in Alaska

by Amy Judd | March 31, 2009 at 04:42 pm

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The United States has, this afternoon, filed a civil lawsuit against BP Exploration for causing oil spills off the North Slope of Alaska.

The Justice Department, filed on behalf of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Transportation are claiming that the company violated the federal clean air and water laws when they knowingly let more than 200,000 gallons of crude oil from pipelines off the North Slope of Alaska during Spring and Summer in 2006. The government departments are saying that BP Exploration Alaska (BPXA) did not do enough to clean up the oil and failed to put in spill prevention measures as part of the Clean Water Act.

They are also being accused of violating the Clean Air Act by not removing asbestos materials from their pipelines and they failed to act in a timely manner to update their pipelines.

The lawsuit states that they want BPXA to take better action to prevent spills in the future, including closer inspection of its pipelines.

The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department on behalf of EPA and PHMSA, asks the court to order BPXA to take all appropriate action to prevent spills in the future, including systemically inspecting its pipelines and associated facilities for corrosion. The United States also seeks civil penalties up to the maximum amount authorized by law.

BPXA is a subsidiary of BP America and it looks for oil, drills and produces oil in Alaska.