Second oil leak shuts Trans Mountain pipeline
VANCOUVER — Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline was shut down for the second time this month because of an ill-timed crude-oil leak just before the company’s expansion meeting Thursday.
Between 20 to 25 barrels of oil spilled from the pipeline Wednesday night near Hope, 150 kilometres east of Vancouver. The leak was due to a detective pipe and the pipeline was immediately shut down as a precaution, according to a statement released Thursday afternoon.
“We are currently excavating the contaminated soil but have yet to determine if this leak is correlated to the one on June 12,” said spokesperson Andy Galarnyk.
Just two weeks ago, about six barrels of crude oil leaked near Merritt, 120 kilometres north of Hope, added Galarnyk.
Kinder Morgan had to weld a steel sleeve on the affected area before the pipeline was allowed to restart at 80 per cent of its normal pressure, said National Energy Board spokeswoman Rebecca Taylor. The same procedure has been done on the current leak and the NEB expects the company to cut out the pipe’s defective section to eliminate future spillages.
News of the leak came on the day Kinder Morgan hosted an open house at Burnaby, B.C., about their proposed pipeline expansion. The company plans to almost triple the amount of oil that moves on the pipeline from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels a day.
But Ben West of the Wilderness Committee said the oil leaks in the past weeks are making it harder for Kinder Morgan to convince the public of the pipeline’s safety.
“Luckily, there was no big impact to the people or environment, but these two incidents are warning signs ... and a reminder that there’s no such thing as a safe pipeline,” West said.
The proposed pipeline will go through areas such as Burnaby and Kamloops and carry heavier oils such as diluted bitumen, which West said are harder to clean up.
About 80 cubic metres of contaminated soil has been excavated from the affected area, but response teams from the NEB, Kinder Morgan and the B.C. Ministry of Environment continue to monitor the pipeline.
“It’s never a good time to have a leak, but we are paying close attention to the area and hope to restart later today,” Galarnyk said.
Built 60 years ago, the 1,150-kilometre pipeline moves petroleum products from Alberta to the port of Vancouver.