Big Creek Oil Spill Overview
On March 20, 2018 a pipeline carrying No. 2 diesel fuel was breached, resulting in the discharge of approximately 58,800 gallons of fuel into Big Creek, Indiana. Big Creek is in the southwestern tip of Indiana in Posey County approximately 7 miles north of Mount Vernon and is a tributary to the Wabash River which flows into the Ohio River.
Marathon Pipe Line LLC and its contractors installed booms at Lower New Harmony Road and at Wabash Road, approximately 4.6 and 7.6 miles downstream, recovery operations used skimmers to remove diesel pooled above the booms. Final estimates of the total diesel recovery was 84.8% of the total released. However, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel evaluating conditions in the creek found an oiled and dead pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), indicating there were injuries to natural resources from the release.
Big Creek is home to a wide range of fish and invertebrate species including a federally listed endangered species, the fat pocketbook mussel (Potamilus capax) which has been documented in the Wabash River and Big Creek watershed, just downstream of the pipeline break. Two additional federally listed species, the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) and the threatened northern long-eared bat (Myotis sepentrionalis) are also found in the Big Creek watershed.
Knightsville Oil Spill Overview
On April 2, 2019 an eight-inch product pipeline carrying “Natural Gasoline” breached, resulting in the discharge of approximately 12,600 gallons into a tributary of Billy Creek in Clay County, Indiana. Investigations revealed that there were dead fish and ducks on the unnamed tributary and Billy Creek. Dead animals were recovered as safety permitted in the second day of spill recovery efforts. Affected fish and wildlife included 8 wood ducks (Aix sponsa), one Louisiana waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla), nearly 400 small fish and minnows, as well as several salamanders and frogs. The forested corridors along Billy Creek also provide suitable summer habitat to the endangered Indiana bat and the threatened northern long-eared bat.
Trustees
Trustees for the Marathon Pipe Line LLC Big Creek and Knightsville Spills Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration include the State of Indiana and the U.S. Department of the Interior acting through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Settlement
In 2020, a settlement agreement was reached among the U.S. Department of the Interior, the State of Indiana, and Marathon Pipeline LLC, resolving claims for injury to natural resources resulting from the March 20, 2018 No. 2 diesel fuel spill and the April 2, 2019 natural gasoline spill.
