Keystone Pipeline oil spill investigators search for cause of Kansas rupture
Federal and state environment officials worked over the weekend to mitigate the fallout from last Wednesday’s Keystone pipeline rupture that caused an estimated 14,000 barrels of crude oil to leak into a stream in the Kansas.
Officials had yet to determine the cause of the incident, TC Energy, the Canadian operator of the pipeline, said Sunday.
The spill near Mill Creek in Washington County, Kansas, had been “contained” by about 250 people working at the site, TC Energy said in a statement.
A satellite image shows emergency crews working to clean up the crude oil spill along Mill Creek following the leak from the Keystone Pipeline operated by TC Energy, in Washington County, Kansas on December 10, 2022.
Maxar Technologies via Reuters
Some of the thousands of barrels of unrefined petroleum products spilled into the creek, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and the company.
Third-party environmental specialists were among hundreds who responded to clean up the mess, the company said in its Sunday update.
“Product remains contained and multiple vacuum trucks, booms and additional resources are on site as we continue the recovery process,” TC Energy said. “Planning for repairs is also underway, as are shoreline assessments.”
In this drone photo, cleanup continues in the area where the ruptured Keystone Pipeline spilled oil into a creek in Washington County, Kansas, on December 9, 2022.
DroneBase via access point
The 36-inch pipeline leak was first detected at 9:01 p.m. local time Wednesday, according to an order issued by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
A travel alarm was received six minutes later, the order said. The pipeline was shut down and its isolation valves closed at 9:08 p.m., officials said.
When TC Energey personnel approached the site, they “identified an odor of crude oil,” the order said.
The bank at Mill Creak in Washington County, Kansas, following a Keystone Pipeline rupture on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022, in this handout released Dec. 9 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
US EPA
“Continuous air quality monitoring has been deployed and, at this time, there are no indications of any health issues or public concerns,” the company said on Sunday.
TC Energy workers constructed an “earth underfill dam” about 4 miles downstream of the spill, according to the EPA. A pipe allows creek water to pass through the dam, “while preventing further migration of oil,” the EPA said in a news release Friday.
“Oil impacts in Mill Creek are contained upstream of this overflow dam. There are currently no concerns about oil migration past the overflow dam,” the EPA said Friday. “TC Energy has mobilized additional resources, such as vacuum trucks and oil skimmers, to support the recovery of oil from Mill Creek.”
Rain was forecast for Monday, the company said, and “crews, we are beginning preparations” to deal with the deteriorating weather.
“An additional dam is being deployed and the underflow dam is shored up to withstand the rainfall,” EPA on-site coordinator Tim Curry wrote in a statement Sunday.
– ABC News’ Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
ABC News
