Pipeline company seeks a deal
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, September 1, 2001
Associated Press
RENTON — Olympic Pipe Line Co. has hired former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr to help fend off possible felony charges from a 1999 explosion that killed three people.
Starr and other lawyers for Olympic met on Friday with Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C., to discuss the case, The Seattle Times reported Saturday, citing people familiar with it.
Olympic may be willing to plead guilty to misdemeanor negligence charges and pay a large fine, The Times reported. The company believes felony charges of intentional misdeeds are unwarranted, unprecedented and unprovable.
A section of the Olympic Pipe Line ruptured in Bellingham on June 10, 1999, creating a fireball that killed an 18-year-old fly fisherman and two 10-year-old boys.
A felony conviction could threaten Olympic’s insurance coverage, which would potentially cost the company millions of dollars.
It could also make it tougher for Olympic to defend itself in two wrongful-death suits.
A federal grand jury hearing the case is scheduled to end its term Sept. 17, which puts Olympic’s legal team up against the clock.
Sources close to the investigation expect federal prosecutors in Seattle to ask the grand jury to return felony and misdemeanor charges against Olympic and one of its partners, Houston-based Equilon Pipeline Co., the Times said.
In July, Olympic and Equilon sued each other, each saying the other was to blame for the rupture. At the time of the rupture, Olympic was being managed by executives provided by Equilon, a joint venture of Texaco and Shell.
The state Ecology Department determined earlier this summer that both companies were responsible, and each failed to repair anomalies found in 1996 and 1997 near where the pipeline ruptured.
The officials also found the companies did little to deal with design flaws and pressure fluctuations at a fuel depot. The Ecology Department fined Olympic, Equilon and a construction company that allegedly scraped the pipeline $7.8 million. Equilon and the construction firm are fighting the fine; Olympic has agreed to pay a share of it.
Starr headed the investigation into President Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky and the Clintons’ Whitewater real estate dealings. The Times reported that Olympic brought him in to talk to the Justice Department after talks between company lawyers and prosecutors in Seattle reached an impasse.
Olympic’s 400-mile pipeline system extends from refineries at Cherry Point, north of Bellingham, and at March Point, near Anacortes, to Portland, Ore.
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