Kinder Morgan to relocate residents after oil spill

According to Las Cruces Sun News the owner of a burst pipeline near Berino, New Mexico, is planning to permanently relocate three residents located near the spill site.

In December 2018, the burst pipeline spilt 294,000 gallons of gasoline into an irrigation ditch.

Owner of the pipeline Kinder Morgan informed the Doña Ana County Board of County Commissioners that negotiations have been completed to relocate two renters of houses that were adjacent to the spill site, Las Cruces Sun News reports. Negotiations with the third resident are still ongoing.

Residents were evacuated after the spill and have since been housed for much of the time at hotels. Kinder Morgan’s vice president of public affairs, Allen Fore said, “It’s not required by any regulation but for the extended inconvenience that it has been to residents, to us this seemed like a better long term resolution.”

According to Las Cruces Sun News, Fore said that each of the residents is being offered a relocation package that is designed to take into account their cost to obtain new housing, as well as relocation expenses and compensation for the inconvenience caused.