Keystone pipeline springs leak in South Dakota

[GMDino]

"Did we say 187 gallons?  Sorry.  We meant 16,000.  Our bad."



https://www.rt.com/usa/338845-keystone-oil-spill-dakota/

Quote:Keystone pipeline leaked 16,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota field
Published time: 7 Apr, 2016 21:01Edited time: 7 Apr, 2016 22:10
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Cindy Myers

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TransCanada estimated that about 16,800 gallons of oil leaked in a field in South Dakota from the Keystone I pipeline on Thursday. The spill, discovered by a farmer over the weekend, led the company to close down the pipeline.

The company reported the estimate to the National Response Center and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration which is equivalent to 400 barrels of oil, according to the Associated Press.

The company began excavating the site on Sunday in a field close the town of Freeman, South Dakota, by turning over topsoil. It said that more than 100 feet of pipe was exposed, with spillage estimate coming from oil being observed in the soil, and the potential area affected.

There are about 100 workers at the site working around the clock to pinpoint the source of the leak in the pipeline.
TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper reported the revised estimate Thursday morning.

“The volume estimate reported this morning to the National Response Centre (NRC) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration (PHMSA) was based on the safe excavation of soil to expose more than 100 feet of pipe,” Cooper wrote, according to the Angus Leader. “It takes into account a number of factors, including oil observed in the soil and the potential area impacted.”

Cindy Myers
Elizabeth Lone Eagle, an official intervener for the state of South Dakota, however, is worried about the spill’s close proximity to the James and Missouri rivers and worried that the “groundwater contamination is heading to Yankton, Vermillion, Sioux City... all the way down,” according to CommonDreams.

The leak is the fifth in the state related to Keystone I, which was approved by the Public Utilities Commission in 2008. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources' spill map shows three releases of petroleum in 2010 and one in 2011, one of which took place at the same pump station in 2010, when less than five gallons were released due to a fitting leak, according to the Argus Leader.

TransCanada’s Keystone I pipeline carries light and heavy crude from Hardisty, Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma, while passing through the eastern Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. The Keystone I pipeline can handle 550,000 barrels, or about 23 million gallons, daily.

Cindy Myers

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