Last updated on 2011.05.10
Update 11:48 CDT: The original version of this post cited Reuters and Wall Street Journal articles describing the spill as 500 barrels. Tar Sands Pipelines says 400 barrels; the initial National Response Center incident report says 100 barrels.
A subsequent article from Bloomberg cites 500 barrels.
TransCanada keeps pumping more oil... onto our ground. TransCanada's Keystone pipeline just blew another gasket, this time at the Ludden pumping station near Cogswell, North Dakota. Incredibly, when neighbor Bob Banderet called TransCanada's emergency number to report oil shooting sixty feet in the air, their first response was not to hit the shut-off switch, but to tell Bob they didn't believe him.
Typical corporate arrogance: If there's a problem, those silly commoners must be imagining it! Our equipment can't fail! Our product can't be toxic! We can't be wrong!
Imagine if a 911 dispatcher responded similarly: You say a man with a gun is breaking into your house? Come on, quit pulling my leg! I suspect that public servant would be fired.
Saturday's pipeline system failure spewed 400 barrels onto the North Dakota prairie. That makes it the largest of ten pumping station failures TransCanada has experienced since opening the Keystone taps less than one year ago.
TransCanada assures us the spill has been contained. TransCanada also assured us five years ago in its keystone pipeline risk assessment that a leak of this magnitude anywhere along the entire pipeline system could be expected once every twelve years. I'm glad TransCanada got this spill out of the way; we shouldn't see another similar spill until well past 2022, right?