ATP Oil & Gas Corporation, Clean Water Act Violations, Louisiana 2012

US Files Lawsuit Against ATP Oil & Gas Corporation for Unlawful Discharge of Oil and Chemical Dispersants

In a move to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for environmental degradation, the United States government has filed a civil lawsuit against ATP Oil & Gas Corporation and ATP Infrastructure Partners, LP (ATP-IP) for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The alleged violations involve the unlawful discharge of oil and unpermitted chemical dispersants from the company’s floating oil and gas production platform, the ATP Innovator, into the Gulf of Mexico.

The ATP Innovator is a production facility operating at Lease Block 711 of Mississippi Canyon in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 45 nautical miles offshore of southeastern Louisiana. The alleged discharges took place from at least October 2010 to March 2012, during which time the company allegedly failed to properly operate and maintain its wastewater treatment system.

According to the complaint, the company added an unauthorized chemical dispersant to the oily wastewater discharge to mask the presence of oil on the ocean’s surface. The dispersant was added to the outfall pipe by way of a concealed metal tube that connected a tank of dispersant to the outfall pipe. The connection of the metal tubing to the outfall pipe was located downstream of the sample collection point, making the addition of unauthorized dispersant undetectable in samples that are required to be collected to show compliance with ATP’s Clean Water Act discharge permit.

The case, United States v. ATP Oil & Gas Corporation et al., was filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The United States government seeks civil penalties under the Clean Water Act and injunctive relief for violations of the Clean Water Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

The violations were discovered during a BSEE inspection of the facility in March 2012. Following further investigation by BSEE, the violations were referred to the government by BSEE and EPA.

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