Surprise!! Keystone Owner Says KS Spill Contained; State Finds Benzene, Toluene Downstream Of Dams [View all]

[hatrack]

Chemicals from the Keystone pipeline spill in north-central Kansas have shown up farther downstream in Mill Creek than the oil company’s repeated statements suggest. TC Energy and regulatory agencies say the oil spill is limited to a containment area — the length of the stream that lies between where the company’s pipeline burst and where workers quickly built an earthen dam about four miles downstream.

Yet state environment officials say benzene, toluene and other volatile organic compounds have been detected beyond the two emergency dams that were installed after the Keystone pipeline’s worst environmental accident to date.

The contamination that migrated downstream of the four-mile, oil-soaked stretch of Mill Creek poses a threat to animals but not to human drinking water, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Wednesday. Two weeks after the Dec. 7 spill, contamination levels remain below a threshold for acute harm to aquatic life, a spokesperson confirmed by email, but they could hurt wildlife that ingests the chemicals through the food chain.

Last Thursday, an official who directs state efforts at the pipeline spill told members of the Kansas Water Authority that public drinking supplies remain safe.

EDIT

https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-12-22/pipeline-company-says-kansas-oil-spill-contained-but-chemicals-found-downstream