Cleanup continues after 50,000-gallon pipeline spill
Roads closed, 15 families forced to evacuate after the July 13 accident.
Lisa Ripple had just arrived at work last week when Bastrop County sheriff ’s deputies told her she had to evacuate. From her house that morning, behind her family’s thrift shop on FM 20, she could smell what seemed like gasoline.
It didn’t seem strange to her at the time since she lives less than a block from a waste management company and had grown used to smells in the area. But that morning it was stronger than usual — so strong she said she felt dizzy.
Less than a mile away, a contractor had struck a fitting while conducting routine maintenance on the Longhorn pipeline on July 13, causing 50,000 gallons of crude oil to leak into the surrounding area. The spill forced roads to close and prompted the evacuation of 15 families from their nearby homes to an emergency shelter.
On Monday morning, the street at FM 20, just south of Shiloh Road, was still lined with tents and hazmat trucks as crews continued cleanup operations this week.
“There is no definitive timetable for completion,” Magellan Midstream Partners, which owns the Longhorn pipeline, said Monday of the cleanup. “The work will continue as long as is necessary in order to ensure that it is done in accordance with all applicable regulations and to the satisfaction of state and federal regulators.”
Magellan said it had safely recaptured all the spilled oil with vacuum trucks. The next step was to conduct excavation activities to remove and replace the contaminated soil.
The damaged section of the Longhorn pipeline was repaired over the weekend, according to Magellan. On Sunday, it resumed normal operations, carrying crude oil from the Permian Basin in West Texas to Houston.
Environmental and oil and gas specialists had gone into overdrive to clean the spill starting last week, when more than 100 emergency responders, cleanup crews, local, state and federal workers and Magellan employees flooded the area, Magellan spokesperson Tom Byers said at the time.
The spill forced FM 20 between Shiloh and Walter Hoffman roads to close. Fifteen families were evacuated to an emergency shelter at the River Valley Fellowship Church on Texas 71 in Bastrop.
Nora Reyes, 36, was huddled in a waiting room with her three children, after deputies rushed them from their house early July 13. Reyes was scared and confused, she said in Spanish, and worried about her animals that were still on the property.
Office of Emergency Management Assistant Deputy Director James Gabriel said it was dangerous for people in the area to inhale fumes from the spilled oil, which he added could pose a fire risk because the oil was flammable.
All residents who live within a 1-mile radius of the spill site were allowed to return home by 5 p.m. July 13.
Magellan agreed to reimburse residents for any costs associated with the evacuation, the company said in a statement.
FM 20 between Shiloh and Walter Hoffman roads was reopened July 14.
No one was injured in the incident, officials said. And none of the oil reached any Bastrop County water sources, according to Magellan.