Keystone pipeline leak in Kansas. What makes this spill so bad?

it’s over A week after TC Energy reported the leak of the Keystone pipeline to Mill Creek in Washington County, Kansas, nearly 600,000 gallons of oil have spilled into the waterway as well as the land around it.

Environmental advocates say this is just the beginning of a cleanup process that is likely to take years.

Operators were alerted to an issue with the pipeline on December 7. TC Energy says that as of Friday morning, 4,125 barrels of oil have been recovered from the creek out of the total of 14,000 barrels (about 588,000 gallons) lost in the spill.

Aerial footage of the spill from Nebraska Public Media shows that the spill has affected nearby pastures and residents’ farmland.

Many initial details, such as the cause of the spill, remain unclear. What is known is the type of oil that was transported through the pipeline: tar sands oil, also called diluted bitumen.

This thick, toxic material makes cleanup more difficult, said Jane Klepp, founder of the Bold Alliance, and Anthony Swift, Canada’s project manager with the Natural Resources Defense Council, two environmental advocacy groups.

“When a tar sands disaster like this happens, it’s worse than a conventional oil spill. Because tar sands is much more difficult and expensive and much more toxic to clean up. We know this is going to take years,” Klepp told NPR. . She said she has been watching oil spills, especially the tar sands spill, for 14 years.

She also points out that, in her experience, initial estimates of how much oil was actually spilled could be wrong.

“Usually, when this happens, that raw number ends up doubling,” she said.

The full picture of the leak will not be known until the recovery process is complete.

In response to Kleib’s comments, TC Energy told NPR in a statement, “Our commitment to the community is that our response efforts will continue until we have fully remedied the site. We have the people, experience, training, and equipment to provide an effective response and cleanup, and that’s what we do.”

Bitumen diluted as “peanut butter”

TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, says the Keystone pipeline runs from Canada to Oklahoma. (This Keystone pipeline should not be confused with the canceled Keystone XL pipeline project that has been a major flashpoint in the US for years.)

Although TC Energy maintains that it has the proper training and equipment to respond effectively to the Mill Creek spill, the effort will be arduous, Swift said.

Bitumen does not flow through the pipeline efficiently,” so it is mixed with dilute materials to prepare them for transportation through pipelines such as diluted, or “expanding” bitumen. American Petroleum Institute says.

“It’s a very thick material “This is almost the consistency of peanut butter,” Swift said with the NRDC.

He says most containment efforts don’t really work with bitumen. In cases of other oil spills affecting waterways, one of the first steps is to create barriers to prevent the oil from spreading too far into the water.

Diluted bitumen “doesn’t float in the way that conventional oil does,” Swift said. “Most means of dealing with spills in bodies of water depend on most of the oil staying above the body of water.”

Bitumen eventually sinks to the bottom of rivers and wetlands, making containment and environmental consequences more difficult and costly.

Swift said this material causes major problems on Earth thanks to bitumen’s incredibly strong adhesive properties.

“Once you put the thick tar sands on something,” he said, “you simply have to dig out whatever those things have touched.” “Bitum can transfer and tends to seep into the soil. The longer it stays around, the bigger the problem it can become.”

Experts compare this spill to the 2010 Kalamazoo accident

Both Kleib and Swift had this conversation The Keystone spill reminds them of the 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill.

In July 2010, more than a million gallons of crude oil were released from the tar sands at Talmadge Creek, a small tributary of the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Michigan, according to the Kalamazoo River Watershed Board. This environmental disaster was the result of a pipe rupture from Enbridge Energy Partners LLC. The spill contaminated a 30-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “From 2010 to 2014, more than 1.2 million gallons of oil were extracted from the river.” Estimates in the years since the cleanup have cost more than $1 billion.

Klepp said Kansas and the people on the ground will have to prepare for the long haul.

“I’ve never seen tar sands intrusion of this scale in a creek. We don’t know what that would look like and how it would affect the biodiversity in that creek. Not to mention pasture lands,” Klepp said.

“In the past, when we’ve seen spills happen, they affect the land for years. Not only do they have to dig up all the contaminated soil, there’s a lot of work to do to make sure that doesn’t affect the root system,” she said. “Now it’s all destroyed. That precious topsoil, which is essential to farming, will be destroyed forever.”

This is not TC Energy’s first, second, or third leak

Keystone has been the subject of 22 reported leaks since 2010, according to a Government Accountability Office report last year. With the Mill Creek case, the number is now at least 23.

“The history of Keystone accidents has been similar to that of other crude oil pipelines since 2010, but the severity of spills has worsened in recent years,” the GAO said. “Similar to crude oil pipelines across the country, most of the 22 Keystone accidents from 2010 through 2020 released less than 50 barrels of oil and were contained on operator-controlled property such as a pumping station.”

Prior to construction, TC Energy obtained a special permit from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). To operate certain sections of the pipeline at a higher pressure level than would normally be permitted under Agency regulations for the transportation of oil.

Although the cause of the leak remains unknown, Swift and Kleeb both expressed concerns about this statement and wondered if the high pressure level was likely a major factor in the latest leak.

“It’s unusual, it’s not the norm,” she said of the number of spills from that pipeline. “They should never have given a company with this many spills a special permit to pump at higher pressure.”

PHMSA told NPR that “the regulations have broad requirements for reporting pipeline accidents.” A spokesperson for the agency said federal regulations require accident reports for accidents that have “a release of 5 or more gallons of hazardous fluids or carbon dioxide, except for maintenance-related releases.”

Excluding the Mill Creek spill, the largest leak in Keystone history occurred in 2017 and 2019. As of December 7, government data shows that this leak is the largest in the pipeline. The Associated Press reported the date.

In response to the Mill Creek case (as has happened with both of Keystone’s previous largest spills), PHMSA issued “Corrective Action Orders,” the agency’s strictest enforcement tool, a spokesperson told NPR.