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Oil spills raise concerns about crude pipelines
News Articles Featured | Chronicle Herald | May 14, 2011
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CALGARY — A spate of oil spills in recent weeks is weighing on the debate over whether controversial new crude pipelines ought to be built.
In one of the more high-profile incidents, some 4.5 million litres of crude gushed from Plains Midstream Canada’s Rainbow pipeline in Northern Alberta on April 29.
While it’s too early to determine the exact cause of that spill, early indications point to “highly, highly unusual” circumstances, said Brenda Kenny, with the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.
Company officials have said maintenance was done on the pipeline last year, and the soil was packed in a way that led the pipe to settle and eventually break.
“In 30 years of practice, I’ve honestly never heard of that sort of thing happening,” Kenny said.
“It is a serious incident, but not something that somebody should be feeling is a suggestion that pipelines are not safe.”
It’s not unusual for there to be leaks around pump stations, like one that happened on TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone pipeline in North Dakota last weekend.
“In many situations, those wouldn’t be of any interest to anyone. I think that what’s important is not to sort of lump everything together,” said Kenny.
The Keystone system began delivering crude to refineries in the U.S. Midwest last summer. Now, TransCanada is planning to extend the line to the lucrative U.S. Gulf Coast and double its capacity in a project called Keystone XL.
The U.S. State Department is in the process of reviewing Keystone XL, which has drawn the ire of several environmental groups and landowners. Many fear a spill could harm the Ogallala aquifer, which provides drinking water to eight U.S. states.
The North Dakota incident raised alarm bells for Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, international program director with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C.
“I think that the arguments about Keystone XL only grow stronger as we see more and more spills happen,” she said.
Leaks have been known to take place on decades-old systems that have corroded over the years. But Keystone’s first phase has had 11 spills — most of which have been minor — since the taps opened in June 2010, Casey-Lefkowitz said.
“And so I think that the fact that we’ve seen so many spills . . . is an even clearer indication that we need to put a hold on the current Keystone XL pipeline permitting process until we can figure out these safety issues.”
TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha noted that leak near Milnor, N.D., last weekend was not with the pipeline itself, but with a faulty valve at a pump station.
The company said Friday it has re-inspected all similar fittings at its pump stations in the United States and Canada and taken steps to install sturdier fittings as a precaution.
The line was put back into service on Friday. The company said it had met all regulatory requirements.
Most of the 79,500-litre spill was confined to TransCanada property, although some oil mist drifted into a nearby field.
TransCanada’s emergency response systems worked exactly as designed when they detected a drop in pressure, Cunha said.
“Within nine minutes, we were able to have that system shut down to ensure no further crude oil was being released.”
Environmentalists and industry experts disagree over whether what’s inside the pipeline has anything to do with its safety.
Casey-Lefkowitz said diluted oilsands bitumen eats away at the pipe, making it more prone to spills. Cunha said, however, that the stuff inside of Keystone is no more corrosive than crude from Saudi Arabia, California or Venezuela.
Enbridge is another major Canadian crude transporter whose safety record has been in the spotlight recently. It plans to build a pipeline between Alberta and the B.C. coast, where the crude would be loaded onto tankers and sold in energy-hungry Asian markets.
Representatives from several northern B.C. First Nations descended on Calgary on Wednesday to speak out against Northern Gateway at Enbridge’s annual meeting.
“We won’t trade the safety of our rivers, lands and fish that are our lifeblood. Enbridge knows that it can’t guarantee there will be no oil spill into our rivers,” said Chief Jackie Thomas of the Saik’uz First Nation.
Last summer, an Enbridge pipeline spilled millions of litres of crude into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. Its U.S. affiliate said Thursday that it will spend US$286 million to replace portions of the ruptured line.
Tagged with: keystone xl, transcanada, pipeline, enbridge, northern gateway, oil spill, keystone, rainbow
