Feds: Keystone Leak Maybe Less Than 5000 Barrels, Maybe Caused by Concrete Saddles

Last updated on 2017-12-09

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (something it really scares me to have Donald Trump in charge of) issued a Corrective Action Order yesterday telling TransCanada what to do about the Keystone 1 pipeline spill in Marshall County, South Dakota. The order (helpfully posted and summarized by BuzzFeed) also tells us two important about the latest Keystone leak:

1. The spill may not be as large as initially reported.
2. The spill may have been caused by construction error in 2008.

The PHMSA doesn’t provide much detail on the first point:

The initial release estimate was 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons). Further review has resulted in an unconfirmed lower spill estimate [Alan K. Mayberry, Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety, Corrective Action Order, In the Matter of TransCanada Oil Pipeline Operations, Inc. CPF No. 3-2017-5008H, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, 2017.11.28].

As for the pipeline failure, the Corrective Action Order says that TransCanada excavated the leaking section of pipe on Sunday, November 26, and found a “rupture originating at the 12:00 o’clock position.” A break on top of the pipe suggests mechanical damage caused by one of the heavy saddle-shaped concrete blocks placed on top of the pipe during construction to keep it from floating up out of the flooded trenches in which Michels Corporation was working.

I got a close look at these “saddles” on Mike Sibson’s land in 2009:

Once the pipeline is in, the earth movers return to dig the trench. The pipeline is then rolled intact into its final resting place. Before the trench is filled, though, installers take one more precaution to protect the wetlands. If the pipeline were simply buried and left empty, awaiting completion of the entire line and the pumping of oil, that hollow steel might float back up to the surface in the mushy areas. To keep the pipeline down in the wetlands, crews will ease big concrete weights down on top of the pipeline before restoring the earth. Mike referred to them as “saddles,” although that term seems to get things backwards: rather than the pipeline “riding” the saddles, these saddles ride the pipeline.

These saddles come with saddle blankets. The round inside of each concrete block is lined with a rough, fibrous layer of insulation, an inch thick, maybe more. That blanket keeps the concrete from damaging the pipeline when the saddles are lowered atop the pipeline. That blanket also prevents damage if the pipeline or the saddles shift at all, whether from the fluid dynamics of the high-pressure oil within or the shifting land (freezing, thawing, future tractor action) without [CA Heidelberger, “Pipeline Through the Heartland: TransCanada on the Farm,” Madville Times, 2009.09.04].

The PHMSA preliminary findings state that the damaged section of pipe is 30 inches in diameter and “constructed of API 5L X-70 line pipe manufactured by Berg Steel Pipe Corporation.” That’s German steel, not the Indian Welspun steel that constituted 47% of the Keystone 1 line (and which will also go into Keystone XL, Trump’s “America First” bleatings be jiggered). But it is important to note that this spill appears not to have resulted from the quality of the steel. Nor does it appear to have resulted from the alarming levels of corrosion that the PHMSA found on other sections of Keystone 1 or the bad welds that PHMSA found on the Oklahoma–Texas stretch of TransCanada’s Keystone XL.

Bad steel, bad welds, and now bad construction? And TransCanada still has a PUC permit to haul toxic tar sands oil under our farmland?

The PHMSA notes that TransCanada was running a cleaning “pig” and a SmartBall through the Keystone 1 pipeline at the time of the leak. Those tools passed the leak site before the alarm went off but reported no damage. The PHMSA says those tools appear not to have contributed to the rupture.

The rupture took place near Mile Post 234.2, 17 miles south/downstream of the Ludden pump station in North Dakota and 6.8 miles north/upstream of the nearest block valve. The nearest “high consequence area” is 6.5 miles upstream of the rupture, near Highway 10 and the Sunset Hutterite Colony. TransCanada has kept the list of “high consequence areas” along its pipeline routes confidential.

TransCanada has removed the ruptured chunk of pipe and will ship it to the National Transportation Safety Bureau’s metallurgical lab in Virginia for analysis. 90 days after NTSB completes its analysis, TransCanada must submit a Root Cause Failure Analysis. TransCanada has 120 days from yesterday to give PHMSA a Remedial Work Plan. The PHMSA is also requiring TransCanada to file quarterly reports on this latest Keystone leak and its cleanup and repair work starting April 15. Those reports are all supposed to be public, but TransCanada can submit redacted copies and request that some information be kept confidential.

The PHMSA allowed TransCanada to restart the pipeline, but for now, the company must run the Ludden pump station, upstream of the Marshall County rupture site, at no more than 1,046 psig, which according to my calculations is 73% of the normal operating pressure of 1,440 psi. TransCanada must keep pressure on the line from the U.S./Canada border to the Freeman pump station (four miles upstream from the site of TransCanada’s 2016 spill) at or below 1152 psig, 80% of normal pressure, until the PHMSA is satisfied with TransCanada’s repairs.