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Keystone pipeline spills 210,000 gallons of oil – Report
Published on Mon, 20 Nov 2017
Washington Post reported that Keystone pipeline running from Canada across the Great Plains leaked Thursday morning, spilling about 5,000 barrels of oil or 210,000 gallons southeast of the small town of Amherst in northeast South Dakota. The spill comes just days before a crucial decision this Monday by the Public Service Commission in Nebraska over whether to grant a permit for a new, long-delayed sister pipeline called Keystone XL, which has been mired in controversy for several years. Both are owned by Calgary-based TransCanada.
The spill on the first Keystone pipeline is the latest in a series of leaks that critics of the new pipeline say shows that TransCanada should not receive another permit.
Mr Jane Kleeb, head of the Nebraska Democratic Party and a longtime activist opposed to Keystone XL said that “TransCanada cannot be trusted. I have full confidence that the Nebraska Public Service Commission is going to side with Nebraskans, not a foreign oil company.”
TransCanada, which has a vast network of oil and natural gas pipelines, said that the latest leak occurred about 35 miles south of the Ludden pump station, which is in southeast North Dakota, and that it was “completely isolated” within 15 minutes. The company said it obtained permission from the landowner to assess the spill and plan cleanup.
Mr Brian Walsh, an environmental scientist manager at the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said that the leaking pipe was in “either a grass or an agricultural field” and that TransCanada had people at the site. Walsh said the leak was detected about 5:30 a.m. He said that “Based on what we know now, the spill has not impacted a surface water body. It has not done that. So that’s good news.”
The first Keystone pipeline, which runs 1,136 miles from Hardisty in Alberta, carries about 500,000 barrels a day of thick bitumen from the oil sands area to pipeline, refining and storage networks in Steele City, Neb. and Patoka, Ill.
The pipeline has had smaller spills 400 barrels each in the same region in 2011 and 2016.
Source : Washington Post