Latest news with #NorthDakotaDepartmentofEnvironmentalQuality
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
5 years later, Walsh County officials see no long-term impacts to site of Keystone Pipeline oil spill
May 28—EDINBURG, N.D. — It's been a few months past five years since a spill from the Keystone Pipeline in Walsh County washed about 5 acres of wetlands in around 383,000 gallons of crude oil. The main thing two county leaders remember about the incident was not the spill itself, but the work put in to correct the damage. Denny Skorheim, a Walsh County commissioner who was on the commission at the time of the spill, said the cleanup and how it was handled were flawless. "I did a follow-up a year, a couple years after, and at that time, I said, 'they could run a pipeline across my land any time they wanted,' because I have absolute faith in the way they handled that whole operation," he said. The spill occurred on Oct. 29, 2019, when a rupture occurred in the pipeline that spilled the crude oil into wetlands outside Edinburg. It is one of the largest crude oil spills in North Dakota history. Recently, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration released an investigation report for the incident that said the root issue behind the spill could partially have been "ineffective quality control" and inadequate inspections at the Berg Steel Mill in Panama City, Florida, the producer of the damaged piece of pipeline. In 2020, TC Energy, the Canadian company that operated the pipeline at the time, paid a fine of about $52,000 to the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality for the spill. The cost was made up of an administrative penalty and an environmental emergency cost recovery fee. TC Energy turned its oil pipeline business into a new company called South Bow Energy last year, and the pipeline is active under the new operators. Skorheim said TC Energy met with the county commission and went through the whole cleanup process, and the commission turned it all over to TC Energy. To Skorheim's knowledge, there haven't been any complaints about the land affected and there has been no lasting impact from the spill. "There was not one thing I could fault them for on anything," he said. "Obviously, the break happened, but as far as the response and cleanup and their handling and managing of the whole operation. ... It was just flawless. Nothing but good to say about the way they handled it." Walsh County Sheriff Ron Jurgens remembered how his office helped keep people away from the affected area and controlled traffic while TC Energy went to work reclaiming the area. He remembered the smell of the oil in the ground, but the main thing he took away from the incident was how the company went about cleaning up the mess. "They hauled out all the old, oil-soaked ground and reclaimed it and remade it," he said. "It's really much better than it was before."
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Five years later, Walsh County officials see no long-term impacts to site of Keystone Pipeline oil spill
May 28—EDINBURG, N.D. — It's been a few months past five years since a spill from the Keystone Pipeline in Walsh County washed about five acres of wetlands in around 383,000 gallons of crude oil. The main thing two county leaders remember about the incident was not the spill itself, but the work put in to correct the damage. Denny Skorheim, a Walsh County commissioner who was on the commission at the time of the spill, said the cleanup and how it was handled was flawless. "I did a follow-up a year, a couple years after and at that time I said, 'they could run a pipeline across my land any time they wanted,' because I have absolute faith in the way they handled that whole operation," he said. The spill occurred on Oct. 29, 2019, when a rupture occurred in the pipeline that spilled the crude oil into wetlands outside Edinburg. It is one of the largest crude oil spills in North Dakota history. Recently, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration released an investigation report for the incident that said the root issue behind the spill could partially have been "ineffective quality control" and inadequate inspections at the Berg Steel Mill in Panama City, Florida, the producer of the damaged piece of pipeline. In 2020, TC Energy, the Canadian company that operated the pipeline at the time, paid a fine of about $52,000 to the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality for the spill. The cost was made up of an administrative penalty and environmental emergency cost recovery fee. TC Energy turned its oil pipeline business into a new company called South Bow Energy last year, and the pipeline is active under the new operators. Skorheim said TC Energy met with the county commission and went through the whole cleanup process, and the commission turned it all over to TC Energy. To Skorheim's knowledge, there haven't been any complaints about the land affected and there has been no lasting impact from the spill. "There was not one thing I could fault them for on anything," he said. "Obviously the break happened, but as far as the response and cleanup and their handling and managing of the whole operation. ... It was just flawless. Nothing but good to say about the way they handled it." Walsh County Sheriff Ron Jurgens remembered how his office helped keep people away from the affected area and controlled traffic while TC Energy went to work reclaiming the area. He remembered the smell of the oil in the ground, but the main thing he took away from the incident was how the company went about cleaning up the mess. "They hauled out all the old, oil soaked ground and reclaimed it and remade it," he said. "It's really much better than it was before."
Bloomberg
11-04-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
Keystone Pipeline Sludge Delays Work Needed to Assess Damage
By and Lucia Kassai Updated on Save Excavation work at a Keystone Pipeline oil spill has been delayed because crews must clean up sludge around the site, according to the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality. Heavy equipment has been moved close to the location of Tuesday's leak that spewed 3,500 barrels of oil across a remote area of the state, but digging can't commence until a mixture of crude and water is removed, agency official Marty Haroldson said by phone on Friday. The excavation, which had been expected to start on Thursday, is the first step in repairing the pipe system that hauls Canadian oil to US markets.
The Independent
08-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Keystone oil pipeline shut down after a rupture in rural North Dakota
The nearly 2,700-mile Keystone oil pipeline was shut down Tuesday morning after it ruptured in North Dakota, halting the flow of thousands of gallons of crude oil from Canada to refineries in the U.S. South Bow, a liquid pipeline business that manages the pipeline, said it shut down the pipeline after control center leak detection systems detected a pressure drop in the system. The spill is confined to an agricultural field in a rural area, about 60 miles southwest of Fargo. 'The affected segment has been isolated, and operations and containment resources have been mobilized to site,' the company said. 'Our primary focus right now is the safety of onsite personnel and mitigating risk to the environment.' The pipeline transported an average 624,000 barrels per day in 2024, according to Canadian regulators. It stretches 2689 miles (4327 kilometers) from Albert, Canada, to Texas. It wasn't clear what caused the rupture of the underground pipeline or the amount of crude oil released into the field. An employee working at the site near Fort Ransom heard a 'mechanical bang' and shut down the pipeline within about two minutes, said Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager with the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality. Oil surfaced about 300 yards (274 meters) south of the pump station in a field and emergency personnel responded, Suess said. No people or structures were affected by the spill, he said. A nearby stream that only flows during part of the year was not affected but was blocked off and isolated as a precaution, he said. The Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is sending a team to investigate the cause of the leak. Fort Ransom is in a hilly, forested area of southeastern North Dakota known for scenic views. It's unclear at what rate the 30-inch (0.8-meter) pipeline was flowing, but even at two minutes 'it's going to have a fairly good volume,' Suess said. 'But ... we've had much, much bigger spills,' including one involving the same pipeline a few years ago in Walsh County, North Dakota, he said. 'I don't think it's going to be that huge,' Suess said. The Keystone Pipeline was constructed in 2010 at a cost of $5.2 billion and carries crude oil across Saskatchewan and Manitoba through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. Though the pipeline was constructed by TC Energy, it is now managed by South Bow as of 2024. A proposed extension to the pipeline called Keystone XL would have transported crude oil to refineries on the Gulf Coast, but it was ultimately abandoned by the company in 2021 after years of protests from environmental activists and Indigenous communities over environmental concerns. In December 2022, nearly 13,000 barrels of oil spilled from Keystone's line in Kansas into a creek traversing a pasture. An engineering consulting firm said the bend in the pipeline at the site had been 'overstressed' since being installed in 2010, likely because of construction activity altering the land around the pipe. TC Energy said a faulty weld in the line's bend caused a crack that exacerbated over time. ___ Raza reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.
Los Angeles Times
08-04-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Keystone oil pipeline shut down after a rupture in rural North Dakota
BISMARCK, N.D. — The Keystone oil pipeline was shut down Tuesday morning after it ruptured in North Dakota, with the spill confined to an agricultural field. The cause of the rupture and the volume of crude oil spilled were not immediately clear. An employee working at the site near Fort Ransom heard a 'mechanical bang' and shut down the pipeline within about two minutes, said Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager with the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality. Oil was reported surfacing 300 yards south of the pump station in a field and emergency personnel responded, Suess said. No people or structures were affected by the spill, he said. A nearby stream that only flows during part of the year was not impacted but was blocked off and isolated as a precaution, he said. It's unclear at what rate the 30-inch pipeline was flowing, but even at two minutes 'it's going to have a fairly good volume,' Suess said. 'But ... we've had much, much bigger spills,' including one involving the same pipeline a few years ago in Walsh County, N.D., he said. 'I don't think it's going to be that huge,' Suess said. The $5.2-billion pipeline constructed in 2011 carries crude oil across Saskatchewan and Manitoba through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma. Though the pipeline was constructed by TC Energy, it is now managed by liquid pipelines business South Bow as of 2024. The Associated Press has reached out to South Bow for comment. A proposed extension to the pipeline called Keystone XL would have transported crude oil to refineries on the Gulf Coast, but it was ultimately abandoned by the company in 2021 after years of protests from environmental activists and Indigenous communities over environmental concerns. Dura and Raza write for the Associated Press.
