According to new research published by Bloomberg, the huge Keystone pipeline has now leaked more oil than any other pipeline since 2010, making it the leader in this category. The latest leak occurred only last week.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the hazardous liquid pipeline system is at the top of the list for the most spillage in the last 12 years, with more than 26,000 barrels of crude oil spilled over those same 12 years. The system has been the subject of controversy following some two dozen accidents.
Last week, an estimated 14,000 barrels of oil from Keystone spilled into a creek in the northeastern part of Kansas. As a result, TC Energy was forced to shut down the large vein as the firm attempted to contain the oil spill and retrieve what had been lost.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration of the United States Department of Transportation have issued a corrective order to the operator of the Keystone pipeline, TC Energy. The order requires the company to address the current leak in the Keystone pipeline, develop and submit a “restart plan” to resume operations for approval, and submit quarterly reports moving forward.
The hazardous liquid pipeline begins in Hardisty, Alberta, in Canada, and continues down through the Midwest of the United States to Port Arthur, Texas.
Keystone has transported more than three billion barrels of oil across the United States since 2010, according to information published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the previous year; yet, “the severity of its spills has escalated in recent years.”
The pipeline was involved in 22 mishaps from 2010 to 2020, which is about average for pipelines in general. However, according to the GAO, only six of those accidents satisfied the agency’s threshold for an incident “impacting people or the environment.”
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