TC Energy, the Canadian company that operates the Keystone pipeline, says more than half of the 14,000 barrels of crude oil that spilled from a rupture in northeast Kansas two weeks ago has been recovered.
The company says its crews had recovered 7,599 barrels of oil from 15,488 barrels of mixed oil and water from Mill Creek, about 20 miles south of a terminal in Steele City, NE.
The GAO says the spill, about 588,000 gallons of oil, was the largest to date on the 12-year old Keystone pipeline – more than double the total of 5 previous leaks combined and the second-largest spill on land in the country in 9 years.
TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, also says crews have removed the segment of the pipeline that leaked and sent it to an independent lab for metallurgical testing as ordered by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
The cause of the leak is still under investigation, but it occurred as the company was sending a diagnostic tool through the metal pipe in that area.
The Keystone pipeline carries oil processed from Canada’s tar sands, which sinks in water instead of floating like other petroleum products.
Bold Alliance, opposed to that type of oil and shipping it by pipeline, wants the entire Keystone shut down until the integrity of the metal pipe can be assessed.