In a news release, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said it filed the 29-page lawsuit in Mecklenburg County Superior Court on Monday to force Colonial “to meet their obligations as the responsible party in the state’s largest gasoline spill.”

Colonial Pipeline reported to regulators in January that the estimated amount of gasoline released from the underground pipeline was 1,119,982 gallons.

The county had reported the previous month that 63,000 gallons were spilled

In September 2020, Michael Regan, then-secretary of the NCDEQ, said 273,000 gallons of gasoline spilled in Mecklenburg County’s Oehler Nature Preserve near Huntersville, The Charlotte Observer reported.

The lawsuit calls on Colonial to take a number of steps, including the removal, treatment or control any source of petroleum, polyfluoroalkyl, also known as PFAS, or other contaminants that have the potential to contaminate groundwater.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said it filed the 29-page lawsuit in Mecklenburg County Superior Court to force Colonial Pipeline “to meet their obligations as the responsible party in the state’s largest gasoline spill”.

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