According to federal data, a broken pipeline dumped enough oil into a northeastern Kansas creek this week to nearly fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, becoming the largest onshore crude oil spill. for 9 years and surpasses all previous cases on the same pipeline system combined. .
Keystone pipeline overflowing into a creek running through rural grassland in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Kansas City, is also the largest in the history of the system, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data Ky. The operator, Canada-based TC Energy, said the pipeline running from Canada to Oklahoma had lost about 14,000 barrels, or 588,000 gallons.
The oil spill has raised questions for environmentalists and safety advocates about whether TC Energy should hold onto a federal government license allowing pressure inside system components. Keystone — including the portion of the road that runs through Kansas — exceeds the normal maximum. With Congress facing a potential debate over reauthorizing regulatory programs, the chairman of the House subcommittee on pipeline safety took note of Friday’s oil spill. .
US Government Accountability Office last year’s report said there have been 22 previous spills along the Keystone system since it began operating in 2010, most of which are TC Energy assets and less than 20 barrels. The report says the total from those 22 events is slightly less than 12,000 barrels.
“I am closely monitoring this situation to learn more about this latest oil leak and inform ways to prevent future oil leaks and protect public safety and the environment,” Dan said. Democrat US Representative Donald Payne Jr., of New Jersey, said tweeted.
TC Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency said the spill was contained. The EPA said the company built an earthen dam across the creek about 4 miles downstream from the pipeline rupture to prevent oil from moving into larger waterways.
Randy Hubbard, the county’s director of emergency management, said the oil had only traveled about a quarter of a mile and there didn’t appear to be any wildlife deaths.
The company said it is conducting round-the-clock air quality checks and other environmental monitoring. It is also using as many trucks as the giant wet vacuum cleaners to suck up the oil.
The previous Keystone spill led to an outage that lasted about two weeks, and the company said it was still assessing when the system could be reopened.
The EPA said no drinking water wells were affected and oil removal efforts will resume next week. No one was evacuated, but the Kansas Department of Health and Environment warned people not to enter the creek or let animals wade in.
“At the time of the incident, the pipeline was operating according to design and regulatory approval requirements,” the company said in a statement.
The nearly 2,700-mile (4,345 km) Keystone pipeline transports Canadian solid tar sands oil to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas, with about 600,000 barrels moving daily from Canada to Cushing, Oklahoma. Concerns about contaminating spills have helped fuel opposition to the new 1,200-mile (1,900 km) Keystone XL pipeline and the company unplug last year after President Joe Biden revoked the license for it.
Environmentalists say the heavier tar sands oil is not only more toxic than lighter crude, but it can also sink in water instead of floating on top. Bill Caram, executive director of the Safe Pipeline Advocacy Foundation, said cleanup can sometimes even include scrubbing each rock in the creek bed.
“It will be months, even years, before we fully address this disaster and know the extent of the damage and the extent of the damage,” said Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club at Kansas Statehouse. clean it all up.”
Pipelines are generally considered safer than transporting oil by train or truck, but large spills can cause significant environmental damage. The American Petroleum Institute said on Friday that companies have strong surveillance to detect leaks, cracks, corrosion and other problems, not only through control centers but also with employees walk along the pipeline.
However, in September 2013, a pipeline of Tesoro Corp. in North Dakota broke and spilled 20,600 barrels, according to US Department of Transportation data.
A more costly spill occurred in July 2010, when an Enbridge Inc. in Michigan ruptured and spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River. Hundreds of homes and businesses have been evacuated.
The largest previous Keystone pipeline spill occurred in 2017, when more than 6,500 barrels of oil spilled near Amherst, South Dakota, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last year. The second largest, 4,515 barrels, was in 2019 near Edinburg, North Dakota.
The Petroleum Institute said the pipelines undergo pre-opening tests using pressures that exceed the company’s planned levels and are designed to take into account what they will carry and changes in the surface. the land they cover. A division of the US Department of Transportation oversees pipeline safety and allows TC Energy to exert greater pressure on the Keystone system because the company has used pipes made from better steel.
But Caram said: “When we see so many failures like this on such a large scale and a relatively short period of time after that pressure has mounted, I think it’s time to question that.”
In a report to Congress last year, the GAO said Keystone’s accident history was similar to that of other pipelines, but the spills have grown larger in recent years. Investigations requested by the regulator have found that the four worst oil spills were caused by flaws in the design or manufacture of the pipeline during construction.
According to the GAO report, TC Energy’s license covers more than 50 special conditions, mainly for design, construction and operation. The company said in response to its 2021 report that it has taken “decisive action” in recent years to improve safety, including developing new technology for crack detection and toxicity assessment. Program your pipeline integrity.
The company said on Friday that it would conduct a full investigation into the cause of the spill.
The oil spill sparked a spike in crude prices on Thursday. U.S. benchmark oil rose more modestly — around 1% — on Friday morning as concerns about supply disruptions were overshadowed by broader concerns about a recession in the United States and other major countries. reduce the demand for oil.
The pipeline runs through the family farm of Chris and Bill Pannbacker. Bill Pannbacker, a farmer and rancher, said the company told him problems with the pipeline there likely wouldn’t be resolved until after the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Pannbacker said the hill where the breach happened is a popular landmark for locals and was once a popular destination for hay riding.
