Marty Schladen

El Paso Times

AUSTIN — During severe flooding on the Trinity River last year, the Texas Railroad Commission was warned of a potentially massive oil spill, but it appears to have done little to investigate.

Plumes, possibly of oil, in the river along the Houston-Madison County Line were long enough that they had been spotted by a French satellite on May 31, 2015. They were persistent enough that they were still there when the Texas Civil Air Patrol flew over and shot photos of them 10 days later.

Yet, as it has with photographic evidence of other oil spills, the Railroad Commission appears to have done little to document and investigate them.

The agency, which is responsible for policing the oil and gas industry, released documents relating to possible pipeline spills emanating from underground in response to questions raised in July by state Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso. Rodríguez, a member of the Senate Agriculture, Water and Rural Affairs Committee, has been seeking answers since the El Paso Times began investigating flood-related spills of oil and fracking fluid in April.

Questions about the Railroad Commission’s response to pollution in severe floods come amid questions about the agency’s general reporting of spills and enforcement of its regulations. In April, a state watchdog again slammed the agency’s performance, but in a hearing last week, a legislative panel seemed disinclined to overhaul the Railroad Commission.

All spills of petrochemicals and fracking fluids are disturbing, but a large underground spill from a pipeline would be especially so, said Ken Kramer, water resources chairman for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.

“The thing is that, ultimately, it could affect groundwater supplies,” Kramer said. “That’s something that people always have been concerned about with pipeline spills.”

Yet the Railroad Commission appears not to have investigated after it was alerted by the Texas State Operations Center on June 11, 2015, that it could have a major spill from an underground source on its hands. The Texas Department of Public Safety activates the center during disasters such as severe floods.

The Railroad Commission received an email from center officials saying there was “strong evidence for emissions from underground sites at locations near the river. A SPOT 6 satellite image collected on May 31 shows dark fluid swept downstream surrounded by sediment-laden water. The same features were photographed yesterday from likely emission points located near the river channel.”

Copies of the photos taken from satellite and plane were attached to the email with arrows pointing to possible oil plumes. Also attached to the email were photos of two surface-production sites that showed apparent oil sheens escaping from them.

The Railroad Commission was asked last week what it did to investigate the possible pipeline spill. It pointed to inspection reports that it sent Rodríguez in July, but those were of the surface sites that the commission also was warned about.

Since the plumes in the photos were not near above-ground sites, they did not consist of oil, Railroad Commission spokeswoman Gaye McElwain said.

“A review of the photos at the time coupled with GPS coordinates showing no exploration and production facilities indicated this was not oil and gas related but rather sedimentary and organic particulates in the flow,” McElwain said in an email.

However, the June 11, 2015, email in which the State Operations Center warned that oil might be emanating from underground said the plumes “are located very close to a pipeline. ...“

If crude oil was released into the environment, its biggest danger is not to drinking water supplies, said Cornelis Elferink, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

If it were present in drinking water in dangerous quantities, “you would have to hold your nose and close your eyes to drink it,” he said.

Elferink’s research showed that toxins associated with crude oil — polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — were elevated in Gulf seafood and posed a hazard to human health in the months after the Deepwater Horizon spill was capped in 2010. Similarly, he said, the biggest hazard to humans from an inland spill of crude oil would be if they eat meat from livestock that consumed it on a sustained basis.

“If there’s oil being released into the environment, that’s not a good thing,” Elferink said.

Kramer, of the Sierra Club, said the apparent lack of response to warnings of a possible pipeline spill illustrates a larger problem.

"If indeed the Railroad Commission didn't respond to these pipeline spills, it's yet another example of the agency's failure to enforce laws meant to protect Texas land and water,” he said in an email. “If it's a lack of will on the part of the agency, then the Legislature needs to finally make changes in the Railroad Commission to compel enforcement. If it's a lack of agency resources, then the Railroad Commission needs to request the funds from the Legislature necessary to carry out its responsibilities effectively."

Rodríguez, whose legislative inquiry has raised otherquestions about the Railroad Commission’s spill response, called on his colleagues to reform the agency.

“The state's own review and recommendations by the non-partisan Sunset Advisory Commission should be heeded,” he said in an email. “The Railroad Commission is sheltering the energy industry from the consequences of its actions, which we all will pay for one way or another. The state must take an active role to ensure that industry profits and state revenue are not derived at a cost that will be paid by future generations.”

The Sunset Review Commission will meet Nov. 10 to vote on what changes to the Railroad Commission’s procedures it will recommend. Those will be incorporated into a bill that will be filed when the 85th Legislature opens in January.

Marty Schladen can be reached at 512-479-6606;mschladen@elpasotimes.com; @martyschladen on Twitter.