On Wednesday, August 25th, 2017, just days before the adjudicatory hearing, Duke announced had not identified a significant environmental issue with one of the proposed routes, — the close proximity of Pristine Inc, an EPA Superfund cleanup site.  OPSB Staff also failed to identify the hazardous waste site, and in fact, recommended the route that was within 150 feet of Pristine.

This hazardous waste dump was identified 1 1/2 years after Duke’s initial application and 3 months after OPSB Staff’s route recommendation.

Information about the Pristine environmental hazard  issue was known and could have easily been discovered had Duke utilized the appropriate level of diligence.  OPSB staff, who had a duty to evaluate Duke’s application with a critical eye, did not identify the significant environmental issue.

On Friday, April 13, 2018, Duke filed supplemental documents to their application, including additional information about the Pristine site.  The supplemental documents do not appear to include an in depth analysis of safety risk by Duke or the EPA.