Wisconsin Gasoline Pipeline Spill FUBAR Continues

A pipeline company is cleaning up its Washington County spill without the permit it should have gotten to build roads carrying heavy trucks and equipment through publicly-owned forestland.

Don Behm has a story that keeps on getting more bizarre:

West Shore Pipe Line Co., owner of the eastern Wisconsin fuel pipeline that ruptured and spilled gasoline in July in the Town of Jackson, has notified state regulators that it intends to excavate and reinforce two sections of pipe within the publicly owned hardwood swamp without waiting for the necessary wetland permit.

Contractors for West Shore built two heavy timber roads through the swamp last month in preparation for the work even though the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources had not issued the permit.

Constructing the 20-foot-wide timber roads without the permit violated state environmental regulations, and the company was given a notice of noncompliance after a Journal Sentinel story describing the work, DNR records show.