Keystone Leak Estimated at 383,000 Gallons
About 9,120 barrels (383,000 gallons) of oil were estimated to have been spilled from TC Energy Corp's Keystone crude pipeline in Walsh County, North Dakota, the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality said on Thursday.
The company said on Wednesday that the 590,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) pipeline system from Canada had been shut after a drop in pressure was detected. It remained closed Thursday.
The Calgary, Alberta-based company formerly known as TransCanada said in a statement the leak affected about 22,500 square feet (2090.3 sq. meters) of land near Edinburg, in Walsh County.
“Our emergency response team contained the impacted area and oil has not migrated beyond the immediately affected area,” the company said in a statement.
North Dakota regulators were notified late Tuesday night of the leak. Karl Rockeman, North Dakota’s water quality division director, said some wetlands were affected, but not any sources of drinking water.
Regulators have been at the site since Wednesday afternoon monitoring the spill and cleanup, he said.
In 2017, a Keystone crude pipeline leak in rural South Dakota spilled nearly double - about 9,700 barrels - the company's original estimate, making it one of the largest U.S. inland spills since 2010.
Earlier this year, Keystone was partially shut after leaking 43 barrels of crude in Missouri.
"It (Keystone) went in during the 1990s. They've had a few spills ... more than you would hope to have on a line that's still fairly new," said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust in Bellingham, Washington, a nonprofit promoting pipeline safety.
TC Energy has been seeking to expand the pipeline system linking Alberta's oil fields to U.S. refineries with its proposed Keystone XL project but has faced regulatory and environmental hurdles despite having U.S. President Donald Trump's backing.
- AP and Reuters report
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