Broken pipe spills crude oil into Delaware River south of Philadelphia

• Laura Legere
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  Laura Legere is a freelance journalist based in Scranton. She was previously a staff writer for the Scranton Times-Tribune, where her reporting on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale won Best in Show from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors as well as awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Inland Press Association and several state contests. She was a 2010 finalist for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. Laura was born and raised in Maine and holds degrees from Middlebury College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Crews are cleaning up 1,000 gallons of crude oil that spilled into the Delaware River on Monday afternoon at a refinery in Delaware County.
The oil spilled into the river at around 1 p.m. when a pipe ruptured while crews were off-loading it at the Monroe Energy refinery in Trainer, the Department of Environmental Protection said. The spill happened about a mile south of the Commodore Barry Bridge, near the Delaware border.
Emergency responders from DEP, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies are monitoring the spill and helping to clean it up. The Coast Guard said crews deployed booms to contain the oil while responders used skimmers and vacuums to remove it from the water.
DEP said Monroe Energy reported the spill promptly and took steps to minimize environmental impacts.

“While any spill into our waterways is unacceptable, reporting protocols were followed and we were able to respond quickly and effectively,” DEP Secretary Chris Abruzzo said. “The frigid weather and quick containment response have helped to minimize the impacts of this incident.”
Monroe Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, bought the Trainer refinery complex in 2012. It refines crude oil to produce fuels it distributes to Delta, BP, and Phillips 66, according to the company.
The oil spill was the second to reach the Delaware River near Philadelphia in less than a week. The Coast Guard said it is overseeing the cleanup of about 200 gallons of crude oil that spilled into a drain after a pipe leaked at the Sunoco Logistics Terminal Facility in Fort Mifflin on Thursday. The drain leads to the Delaware River and about 50 gallons of the oil went into the water.

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