After pouring over 14,000 barrels, or around 588,000 gallons, of oil in a nearby creek in Washington County, Kansas, TC Energy’s Keystone Pipeline was shut down earlier this month. The business is currently starting its efforts to recover at least some of the oil.
Since the stream is not connected to a source of drinking water, officials claim that the area’s drinking water has not been impacted. Additionally, booms are placed downstream to stop oil from leaving the containment region. Following the incident, no one was evacuated, according to Associated Press.
The newest spill happened while TC Energy checked the pipeline for any issues, but the cause is still under investigation. Before restarting the pipeline, TC Energy will need approval from the authorities, and the business will also need to 20% lower the pressure inside the failed pipeline segment. The authorities are also asking TC Energy to provide a written plan for identifying any pipeline issues, conduct more testing by March 2023, and determine the cause of the failure.
The Keystone pipeline spill is the biggest in the pipeline’s history and the greatest onshore spill since North Dakota was the site of a 20,600-barrel Tesoro Corp. pipeline leak in 2013, making it the biggest onshore spill since then.
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The most recent spill on the Keystone pipeline is only one of several problems that the pipeline has encountered since it started operating in 2010.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported 22 accidents related to the Keystone pipeline in a study dated 2021 and determined that the problems were getting worse over time. According to ABC News, the spill in December 2022 is even bigger than all of its prior disasters.
The GAO study from 2021 also revealed that four of the pipeline’s largest spills before the most recent catastrophe were brought on by problems with the initial design, pipe manufacturing, or pipeline construction. These problems could be related to those that led to the spill in December 2022, and some experts think corrosion may be at fault.
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Many individuals opposed the Keystone XL pipeline proposal by TC Energy because of concerns about oil spills. A federal judge declared the lawsuit to revive the pipeline as moot in early 2022 after TC Energy canceled the contentious project in 2021.
