From the Montreal Gazette – June 3, 2011
by Sheldon Alberts
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration issued an order Friday
preventing Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. from restarting its massive
Keystone oil pipeline after an investigation into two spills in less
than a month found “serious” concerns about safety in pump stations
along the 3,450-kilometre line.
“After evaluating the
foregoing preliminary findings of fact, I find that the continued
operation of the pipeline without corrective action would be hazardous
to life, property and the environment,” Jeffrey Wiese, the associate
pipeline safety administrator with the U.S. Department of
Transportation, wrote in a letter to TransCanada executives.
The
order to keep the 600,000-barrel-per-day pipeline shut down comes after
investigations into separate spills at Keystone pumping stations in
North Dakota and Kansas determined “cyclical fatigue” contributed to the
failure on pipe fittings at both facilities. It requires TransCanada
meet 14 conditions before the pipeline can resume operations.
The
problems along the existing Keystone pipeline come at a critical time
for TransCanada, which is seeking a presidential permit approving the
construction of a second major pipeline, the Keystone XL, across the
U.S. Great Plains to the Gulf Coast in Texas.
The U.S.
State Department is completing public consultations on Monday into an
environmental impact study of the proposed Keystone XL Line.
Environmental
groups and landowners along the planned route of the new pipeline fear a
major spill could cause irreparable damage to sensitive ecosystems like
the Sand Hills in Nebraska. There are also concerns, particularly in
Nebraska, about environmental threats to the Ogallala Aquifer, a major
groundwater source for residents in the Great Plains states. Keystone XL
would cross the aquifer.
“We recognize that these
instances would lead to negative public perception about our pipelines,”
TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha said Friday afternoon. “But we take
these things very seriously and we are taking the necessary steps to be
done to ensure the integrity of the system.”
The original
Keystone pipeline — which began delivery of oilsands crude from
Hardisty, Alberta, in June 2010 — has so far had 11 breaks along the
2,100-kilometre U.S. portion of the line.
The pipeline was
shut down May 7 after about 400 barrels of oil spilled at the Ludden
pump station in Sargent County, North Dakota. The pipeline was restarted
on May 13.
TransCanada was forced to shut down the
pipeline again following the failure of another fitting at the Severance
pump station in Doniphan County, Kansas.
About 10 barrels
of oil were spilled in Kansas, and TransCanada officials said this week
they hoped to restart the pipeline again within days.
The
Department of Transportation order revealed a third, previously
unreported leak, on May 25 at the Roswell pumping station in South
Dakota. That spill was not big enough “to meet reportable criteria,” but
it was also caused by cyclical fatigue on a transmitter fitting.
“I’m
concerned about the environmental risk. There have been 11 spills in
TransCanada pipelines in the last year, I believe. That seems to me to
be a rather high number,” said Bill Avery, a Nebraska state senator who
opposes the construction of the new Keystone XL.
“The
spills validate some of the concerns that a number of us have had all
along. Maybe TransCanada is not leveling with the public . . . about the
safety of its pipeline.”
The corrective ordered issued on
Friday “prevents TransCanada from restarting operations on their
Keystone crude oil pipeline until (the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration) is satisfied with the ongoing repairs and is
confident that all immediate safety concerns have been addressed,” Julia
Valentine, a Department of Transportation spokeswoman, said in an
emailed statement.
“In addition to immediate repairs and
testing, PHMSA’s order requires TransCanada to perform metallurgical
testing and root cause failure analysis, review other parts of the
pipeline system for concerns similar to those involved in the recent
failures, make permanent repairs and continue ongoing monitoring.”
The
North Dakota spill in early May was sourced to a small “swaged nipple”
on piping that had cracked “as a result of over-torque during
installation,” the Department of Transportation said.
TransCanada
determined “the cyclic bending stress fatigue due to normal operational
vibration propagated the cracks to failure,” according to the
corrective action order.
The Keystone break in Kansas on May 29 was on a half-inch diameter nipple that also indicated “cyclical fatigue.”
In
the corrective action order, Wiese writes that there is “potential for
the conditions causing the failures to be present elsewhere on the
pipeline.”
TransCanada must now send the U.S. government a
detailed “re-start plan” including information about repairs, evidence
of proper pump station monitoring and communication with local emergency
officials along the route.
“I don’t have a timeline as to
when the start-up will be taking place,” said Cunha. “But we are
implementing all the 14 conditions outlined, and hope to have them
implemented right away so that way we could have the system up and
running as soon as possible.”
The pipeline has, as of
Friday, been shut down for six consecutive days. TransCanada remains
hopeful Keystone can “deliver all of our obligations for the month of
June,” Cunha said.