by Federal and state environmental officials worked over the weekend to mitigate the fallout from the Keystone Pipeline explosion that leaked nearly 14,000 barrels of crude oil into a Kansas creek last Wednesday.
Canadian pipeline operator TC Energy said on Sunday that authorities have yet to determine the cause of the incident.
TC Energy said in a statement that the spill near Mill Creek in Washington County, Kansas was “contained” by about 250 people working at the site.
A satellite image shows emergency teams working to clean up the crude oil spilled along Mill Creek following the leak at the Keystone Pipeline operated by TC Energy in Washington County, Kansas, on December 10, 2022.
via Reuters Maxar Technologies
Some of the thousands of barrels of unrefined petroleum products flowed downhill into the creek, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and the company.
The company said in its update Sunday that third-party environmental experts were among the hundreds who responded to clean up the mess.
“As we continue the recovery process, the product is under control and a large number of vacuum trucks, booms and additional resources are in place,” TC Energy said. “Repair planning is underway, as are shoreline assessments.”
Cleanup continues in an area where the broken Keystone pipeline drains oil into a stream in Washington County, Kansas on December 9, 2022, in this photo taken by a drone.
DroneBase via AP
The leak in the 36-inch pipeline was first detected at 9:01 a.m. local time on Wednesday, according to a mandate issued by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, part of the US Department of Transportation.
Emir said a trip alarm was received six minutes later. According to the authorities, the pipeline was shut down and the isolation valves were closed at 21:08.
Emir said that as TC Energey personnel approached the field, they “detected a smell of crude oil”.
Mill Creak bank in Washington County, Kansas, following a break in the Keystone Pipeline on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, in this statement released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Dec.
US EPA
“Continuous air quality monitoring has been put in place and there are currently no indications of adverse health or public concerns,” the company said in a statement on Sunday.
According to the EPA, TC Energy employees built an “subsurface dam” about 4 miles downstream from the spill. The EPA said in a press release Friday that a pipe allows creek water to pass through the dam while “preventing further migration of oil.”
“Oil impacts within Mill Creek are contained upstream of this underflow dam. There are currently no concerns about oil migration past the underflow dam,” the EPA said Friday. “TC Energy has mobilized additional resources, such as vacuum trucks and oil scrubbers, to support oil extraction from Mill Creek.”
The company said rain is expected for Monday and “crews are starting preparations” to deal with worsening weather conditions.
“The additional boom is deployed and the lower dam is braced to withstand rainfall,” Tim Curry, the EPA’s field coordinator, said Sunday.
-ABC News’ Darren Reynolds contributed to this article.
