Anchorage Daily News

Last month's Prudhoe Bay oil spill, the largest ever on the North Slope, is drawing attention from a growing stable of investigators.

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George Miller

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John Dingell

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigators who are conducting a criminal probe into a Beaufort Sea drilling spill in 2003 have reportedly added the Prudhoe spill to their inquiry list.

Last week, two congressmen started their own investigation into the spill, and they are questioning whether the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline is susceptible to the same type of corrosion that ate a hole in a major Prudhoe feeder pipeline, allowing the oil to spill.

Democratic Reps. John Dingell of Michigan and George Miller of California are dispatching to Alaska next week Christopher Knauer, the minority investigator of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

They asked the head of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the Anchorage-based oil company consortium that runs the trans-Alaska pipeline, whether the chemical additives suspected to have caused the corrosion in the Prudhoe feeder line could have reached the main pipeline.

The spill was discovered March 2 in a pipeline connecting two processing plants in the Prudhoe Bay oil field. As much as 270,000 gallons of crude spilled onto about two acres of tundra over a period of five days or more.

Last week, Dingell and Miller sent Steve Marshall, president of BP subsidiary BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., a list of questions on the leak's cause and corrosion testing the company had conducted on its pipes. BP runs Prudhoe on behalf of itself and other owners.

Marshall sent the congressmen an 18-page response Monday. In it, Marshall writes the investigation is not complete, but "recent and aggressive internal corrosion is the likely cause of the leak."

State environmental regulators and Marshall say a possible contributor to the corrosion was an emulsion-breaking additive in the line.

The additive is used to reduce water and silt in the oil.

In their query to Alyeska president Kevin Hostler, Dingell and Miller asked whether the chemical additives used by BP have hurt the trans-Alaska pipeline, which carries North Slope oil south to the tanker port at Valdez.

"Assuming the theory that the rapid onset of corrosion was caused by the emulsion-breaking additive proves true, it would suggest that (the trans-Alaska pipeline) itself may be vulnerable to the same corrosion caused by the additive," the letter reads.

Dingell and Miller also asked Alyeska whether the pipeline company uses the same additives as BP. The congressmen further asked about Alyeska's methods and frequency of testing for corrosion.

Alyeska spokesman Mike Heatwole said company managers are preparing to meet with the committee investigator next week.

Dingell and Miller's inquiry is one of a growing number of investigations into the spill.

State environmental regulators said this week that fines as high as $2.1 million could result from their investigation, which is being conducted jointly with BP.

Additionally, the EPA has launched its own investigation into the spill, according to The Wall Street Journal. A Washington-based spokesman for the EPA, Dale Kemery, would neither confirm nor deny any probe, citing agency policy.

Glen Plumlee, an Anchorage resident and strategic planning coordinator for Alyeska, said he has spoken with federal criminal investigators multiple times in recent months about corrosion spending and other matters. Plumlee said he also has filed a Labor Department complaint accusing Alyeska executives of retaliating against him, after he disclosed he talked with investigators, by reneging on the promise of a consulting job after he retires this Sunday.

The congressional committee does not have the power to prosecute. If the investigator finds evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Dingell and Miller plan to turn over that evidence to the Justice Department, said spokeswoman Jodi Seth.

In his response to the congressmen, BP's Marshall said the leaking line will not be brought back into service until its integrity is confirmed.

Ultrasonic tests showed increasing corrosion in the pipeline last fall, but the amount was manageable, Marshall said. Additional inspections were added as a result, he said.

The leak was at a point where the pipeline was buried for a caribou crossing, and it was not accessible to direct visual inspection. Ultrasonic testing of that area was not done, Marshall wrote.

Daily News reporter Wesley Loy contributed to this article. He can be reached at wloy@adn.com or 257-4590.