HISTORY OF SPILLS: TC Energy’s Keystone pipeline (22 SPILLS: 2010-2022)

(Note: TC Energy’s (formerly TransCanada) “Keystone pipeline” is not to be confused with the company’s proposed “Keystone XL” pipeline — a separate pipeline project that was defeated and cancelled two separate times under Pres. Obama and Pres. Biden. The Keystone 1 pipeline carries up to 720,000 barrels per day of tarsands from Alberta, Canada to refineries in Texas and Illinois.)

TC Energy oil spill PR oil discharge 12-9-22 (Photo: U.S. EPA)

• December 8, 2022: PHMSA issues Corrective Action Order to TC Energy re: Dec. 7 spill.
• #22: Dec. 7, 2022: TC Energy shut down its Keystone pipeline after detecting a leak of 588,000 gallons into a creek near Washington, KS — about 20 miles south of Steele City, NE. “An emergency shutdown and response was initiated at about 9 p.m. CT on Dec. 7 after alarms and a pressure drop in the system, the company said in a release, adding booms were deployed to control downstream migration of the release.” November 5, 2019: PHMSA issues Corrective Action Order to TransCanada re: Oct. 30 spill.
• #21: October 31, 2019: TransCanada’s (“TC Energy”) Keystone pipeline leaked at least 380,000 gallons of tarsands oil and toxic diluents that affected wetlands in northeastern North Dakota. No cause has yet been established.
• #20: February 6, 2019: Keystone pipeline spills 1,800 gallons in St. Charles County, Missouri. After metallurgical analysis of the spill’s cause: “The composite wrap was inadequately designed for the metal loss feature it was to protect, as the applicator’s interpretation of the feature as mechanical damage led to fewer wraps than corrosion given the naming convention used in the composite vendor’s software. Feature direct examination concluded blunt metal loss with no evidence of sharp edges or stress concentrators, and the feature root cause analysis determined the accelerated rate of corrosion was primarily caused by stray direct current interference and was subsequently repaired. The RCFA indicated the primary cause of the leak was a through-wall crack that exhibited signs of fatigue, initiated from localized stress concentrations in the irregular pitted surface of the repaired metal loss feature.” Of note: A 2015 investigation in the same county found Keystone pipe there had “suffered from corrosion so severe that it was worn through 95 percent in some places after being in service for less than two years. In one spot, inspectors found the pipeline was down to a metal layer just one third the thickness of a dime.”
• #19: February 20, 2018: Keystone pipeline spills 15 gallons from a Pump Station in Steele City, Nebraska, blamed on “a leaking float control valve.”

Read the full story here: Keystone Pipeline Spill History | Bold Nebraska