Kansas oil spill biggest in pipeline’s history
Energy firm estimates Keystone system loss of 588K gallons, says affected segment ‘isolated’
TOPEKA, Kan. — An oil spill in a creek in northeastern Kansas this week is the largest for an onshore crude pipeline in more than nine years and by far the biggest in the history of the Keystone pipeline, according to federal data.
Canada-based TC Energy on Thursday estimated the spill on the Keystone system at about 14,000 barrels, or 588,000 gallons. It said the affected pipeline segment had been “isolated”; the oil had been contained at the site with booms, or barriers; and environmental monitoring had been set up, including aroundthe-clock air-quality monitoring. It did not say how the spill occurred.
After a drop in pressure on the pipeline that carries oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, the company said it shut down its Keystone system Wednesday night. Oil spilled into a creek in Washington County, Kan., about 150 miles northwest of Kansas City.
Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club in Kansas, noted the spill in his state was larger than all of the 22 previous spills combined on the Keystone pipeline, which began operations in 2010.
“This is going to be months, maybe even years before we get the full handle on this disaster and know the extent of the damage, and get it all cleaned up,” he said.
In September 2013, a Tesoro Corp. pipeline in North Dakota ruptured and spilled 20,600 barrels, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data.
Another spill happened in July 2010, when an Enbridge Inc. pipeline in Michigan ruptured and spilled more than 20,000 barrels into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River. Hundreds of homes and businesses were evacuated.
The Keystone pipeline’s previous largest spill came in 2017, when more than 6,500 barrels spilled near Amherst, S.D., according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last year. The second largest, 4,515 barrels, was in 2019 near Edinburg, N.D.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said drinking water wells were not affected by this week’s spill, and the oil didn’t move from the creek to larger waterways. The spill was in pastureland about 5 miles northeast of Washington, the county seat of about 1,100 residents, and no evacuations were ordered.
Pipelines are often considered safer than shipping oil by railcar or truck, but large spills can create significant environmental damage.
The nearly 2,700-mile Keystone pipeline carries thick, Canadian tar-sands oil to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. An arm of the Transportation Department that oversees pipeline safety permitted operator TC Energy to run the pipeline at pressure greater than is usually allowed if the company used pipe made from better steel.
In a report to Congress last year, the Government Accountability Office said Keystone’s accident history was similar to other oil pipelines, but the spills have gotten larger in recent years. Investigations ordered by regulators found that the four worst spills were caused by flaws in design or pipe manufacturing during construction.