Platte Pipe Line Company, a Delaware Corporation v. United States of America and Willwood Irrigation District, a Wyoming Corporation

BALDOCK, Circuit Judge.

This appeal involves jurisdictional questions pertaining to plaintiff-appellant Platte Pipe Line Company’s (Platte) action to recover cleanup costs and other expenses incurred in the aftermath of an oil spill. Platte is a common carrier engaged in the transportation of crude oil by pipeline between Big Horn Basin, Wyoming and Wood River, Illinois. On August 2,1982, approximately 3,880 gallons of fuel leaked from the pipeline in Big Horn County, Wyoming and eventually flowed into the Shoshone River.

Platte’s amended complaint alleged that the leak was due to a rupture in…