Keystone pipeline ordered shut down after leak of 14,000 barrels of oil | 24CA News
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says it ordered a shutdown of the Keystone oil pipeline this week, after a leak of 14,000 barrels of crude oil was found in northeastern Kansas.
“We are monitoring & investigating the Keystone Pipeline leak first detected Weds night,” Buttigieg mentioned on Twitter Friday, including that the administration has issued a Correction Action Order “requiring a shutdown of the affected segment, analysis of the cause, and other safety measures.”
The pipeline’s Canadian proprietor, TSX-listed TC Energy, had beforehand acknowledged the pipeline was shut down, however Friday’s announcement was the primary suggestion that it there was a proper request to take action from authorities.
The leak is the biggest within the historical past of the pipeline, which carries greater than 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. About one fifth of all of the crude oil that Canada exports to the U.S. day-after-day goes alongside the pipeline.
On Wednesday night oil began spilling into a creek close to the pipeline in Washington County, Kan., about 240 kilometres northwest of Kansas City.
The firm says the affected pipeline phase had been “isolated” and the oil contained on the website with booms, or limitations. No clarification for what brought about the spill was given.
Among the biggest spills ever
The quantity of oil spilled has been estimated at 14,000 barrels, making it bigger than all of the 22 earlier spills mixed on the Keystone pipeline because it was opened in 2010, in accordance with Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club in Kansas.
“This is going to be months, maybe even years before we get the full handle on this disaster and know the extent of the damage and get it all cleaned up,” he mentioned.
In September 2013, a Tesoro Corp. pipeline in North Dakota ruptured and spilled 20,600 barrels, in accordance with U.S. Department of Transportation knowledge. The firm, which labored to get better oil for years however solely recovered a fraction of the spill, mentioned {that a} lightning strike might have brought about that break.
A costlier spill occurred in July 2010, when an Enbridge Inc. pipeline in Michigan ruptured and spilled greater than 20,000 barrels into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River. Hundreds of houses and companies had been evacuated and federal regulators later ordered Enbridge to dredge the contaminated sediment from the river.
The Keystone pipeline’s earlier largest spill got here in 2017, when greater than 6,500 barrels had been spilled close to Amherst, S.D.,, in accordance with a U.S. Government Accountability Office report launched final yr. The second largest occurred in 2019 close to Edinburg, N.D., when it leaked 4,515 barrels.
No evacuations ordered
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mentioned there have been no identified results but on ingesting water wells or the general public in reference to this week’s spill, and the oil did not transfer from the creek to bigger waterways. No evacuations had been ordered as a result of the break occurred in rural pastureland, in accordance with Randy Hubbard, the Washington County Emergency Management coordinator.
TC Energy mentioned it had arrange environmental monitoring on the website, together with around-the-clock air high quality monitoring.
“Our primary focus right now is the health and safety of onsite staff and personnel, the surrounding community, and mitigating risk to the environment,” an organization assertion mentioned.
Junior Roop, the sexton of a cemetery close to the spill website, mentioned individuals may odor the oil on the town.
“It was like driving by a refinery,” he mentioned.
Concerns that spills may pollute waterways spurred opposition to plans by TC Energy to construct one other crude oil pipeline within the Keystone system, the 1,900-kilometre Keystone XL, which might have lower throughout Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Critics additionally argued that utilizing crude from Western Canada’s oil sands would worsen local weather change, and President Joe Biden’s cancellation of a U.S. allow for the mission led the corporate to tug the plug final yr.
Local response
Paul Stewart, an space farmer, mentioned a part of it was contained on his land utilizing yellow booms and a dam of grime. The spill occurred in Mill Creek, which flows into the Little Blue River.
The Little Blue feeds the Big Blue River, which flows into Tuttle Creek Lake, north of Manhattan, house of Kansas State University. The EPA mentioned the oil didn’t have an effect on the Little Blue.
Chris Pannbacker mentioned the pipeline runs by her household’s farm. She and her husband drove north of their farmhouse and throughout a bridge over Mill Creek.
“We looked at it from both sides, and it was black on both sides,” mentioned Pannbacker, a reporter for the Marysville Advocate newspaper.
