Federal data: Kansas oil spill biggest in Keystone history

[TexasTowelie]

Source: AP

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A ruptured pipe dumped enough oil this week into a northeastern Kansas creek to nearly fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, becoming the largest onshore crude pipeline spill in nine years and surpassing all the previous ones on the same pipeline system combined, according to federal data.

The Keystone pipeline spill in a creek running through rural pastureland in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City, also was the biggest in the system’s history, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data. The operator, Canada-based TC Energy, said the pipeline that runs from Canada to Oklahomalost about 14,000 barrels, or 588,000 gallons.

The spill raised questions for environmentalists and safety advocates about whether TC Energy should keep a federal government permit that has allowed the pressure inside parts of its Keystone system — including the stretch through Kansas — to exceed the typical maximum permitted levels. With Congress facing a potential debate on reauthorizing regulatory programs, the chair of a House subcommittee on pipeline safety took note of the spill Friday.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report last year said there had been 22 previous spills along the Keystone system since it began operating in 2010, most of them on TC Energy property and fewer than 20 barrels. The total from those 22 events was a little less than 12,000 barrels, the report said.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/oil-spills-business-texas-kansas-us-environmental-protection-agency-eda391fc0924b34a08ff840615a7bc58

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[barbtries]

1. who could have seen that coming?

[Botany]

2. If this was bitumen from the tar sands they will never be able to clean it all up.

That shit is nasty.

[mopinko]

4. got me curious about another spill.

MARSHALL—Dr. Kenneth Kornheiser, a retired Plainwell veterinarian, avid canoeist and longtime river advocate, marks the passing of time since the disastrous Kalamazoo River oil spill by the summers he couldn’t paddle his home river.

There were the months following the July 25, 2010 spill, when the river ran black after Enbridge’s Line 6B pipeline ruptured in a wetland near Marshall, sending more than 840,000 gallons of crude oil spewing into Talmadge Creek and nearly 40 miles down the Kalamazoo.

Then there were years when parts of the river closed segment-by-segment as cleanup crews dredged and aerated oil that had fused to sediment on the riverbottom.

And finally, the year Enbridge finished dredging Morrow Lake and Kornheiser could fully resume his 21-year-long habit of weekly trips down the Kalamazoo.

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/10-years-later-kalamazoo-river-spill-still-colors-enbridge-pipeline

[Botany]

5. And that section of the Kalamazoo is still not cleaned up to this day.

I have a friend who knows people that working in the restoration and clean up of the river
and that tar sands oil sludge is so thick and heavy that it sank into the river and wetland
bottoms and it is all but impossible to get it all.

Those tar sands in mining them, transporting them, and burning them are planetary suicide.

Leave that shit in the ground and let the forests grow to soak up some CO2.

[mopinko]

6. ya know, i have a bud that lives there.

after his wife finished advanced nursing training, they looked around for the best place to raise their boys, and where she could get the best job. kalamazoo has a college tuition deal for all their citizens, and that was the key.
then about 5 yrs later, this happened. havent seen him in a while, but i think of him every time i see a spill like this in the news. they’d been through some shit getting her through school. they were so happy w their choice….

[Bengus81]

3. 82% Trump voters in 2020 and another 1.5% crackpot Libertarians

Who were no doubt all bitching about the "Libtards" and their opposition to the Keystone pipeline,and extensions of it. Looks like they're owning the Libs again!

[joshcryer]

7. Washington County has 5k people, and this probably won't affect the locals much.

The big water tables are quite a few counties to the west of Washington county (interestingly, this original Keystone pipeline was designed to not go over large Aquifers and such which is why Keystone XL is and always was a political distraction since it intentionally went over Aquifers and native lands and plowed right through every damn nature zone you could think of as well as impeded on a vast number of landowners, the thing was designed to fail and be protested).

To be sure it is a disaster and the cleanup will never happen, but it'll just be a slight for those locals and they'll just happily forget about it. A few people who live near enough to it will complain. That pasture is pretty much done for and the guy who owns the land will get a nice payment for it.

These happen all the time but rarely get picked up by the news unless it causes a full shut down of the lines, you can look here and see all the leaks that happen: https://pvnpms.phmsa.dot.gov/PublicViewer/

There's 6 major spills in Washington county alone.

[Bengus81]

12. The farmers down stream are griping about it already.....

You know,they same ones who vote for Trump and love anything Republican.

[joshcryer]

13. For sure, but that's 20 people out of 5.5k

Say it makes it up to 100 people. They'll all get fancy insurance payouts, and have to deal with trucks coming in and trying to do cleanup that the EPA will fork over superfund money for. Hell some of the locals, since they're locals in a really rural area, will be the ones getting paid from the superfund.

Those same good old boys who voted for Trump and hate big gubiment and hate the EPA will gladly accept several tens of thousands of dollars to drive trucks around hauling off and replacing soil that got contaminated.

That, in many ways, is why it is a no win situation, but we must still have the EPA do these things.

[diva77]

8. Another article about it here

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/10/1142088091/kansas-oil-spill-is-keystone-pipelines-biggest-ever-according-to-federal-data

[NullTuples]

9. I don't recall even one disastrous spill of sunlight or wind from renewables...

[bluestarone]

10. PROOF that stopping this bullshit pipeline was

100% CORRECT!!

[Raine]

11. Faux had been strangely silent about this

for some reason.