Keystone pipeline leaks 210K gallons of oil in South Dakota

Officials doubt drinking water systems afffected

AMHERST, S. D.—Trans Canada Corp.’ s Keystone pipeline leaked an estimated210,000 gallons of oil in northeastern South Dakota, the company and state regulators reported Thursday.

Crews shut down the pipeline Thursday morning and activated emergency response procedures after a drop in pressure was detected resulting fromthe leak south of a pumpstation in Marshall County, Trans Canada said in a statement. The cause was being investigated.

Officials don’t believe the leak affected any surface water bodies or threatened any drinking water systems from the spill onto agricultural land, said Brian Walsh, an environmental scientist manager at the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which has dispatched a staffff member to the site.

“Ultimately, the cleanup responsibility lies with Trans-Canada, and they’ll have to clean it up in compliance with our state regulations,” Walsh said.

The pipeline transports crude from Alberta, Canada, to refifineries in Illinois and Oklahoma, passing through the eastern Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. It can handlen early 600,000barrels, or about 23 million gallons, daily. Trans Canada says on its website that the company has safely transported more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil, or about 63 billion gallons, through the systems ince operations began in 2010.

Trans-Canada said in its statement that it expected the pipeline to remain shut down as the company responds to the leak. It did not offffffffffffer a time estimate.

The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration didn’ t immediately return an email requesting additional information from The Associated Press.

A leak and spill in southeastern South Dakota in April 2016 prompted a week- long shutdown of the pipeline. Trans-Canada estimated that just under 17,000 gallons of oil spilled onto private land during that leak. Federal regulators said an “anomaly” on a weld on the pipeline was to blame. No waterways or aquifers were a ff ff ff ff ff ffec ted.

Trans-Canada said at the time that the leak was the fifirst detected on the pipeline since it began operating, though there had been leaks at pumping stations. One of those leaks happened in southeastern North Dakota in May 2011, when 14,000 gallons spilled after a valve failed at a pumping station near the South Dakota border.

The Keystone Pipeline is part of a 2,687-mile system that also is to include the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which has faced persistent opposition from environmental groups, American Indian tribes and some landowners.

President Donald Trump issued a federal permit for the project in March even though it had been rejected by the Obama administration.