Field testing rules out Keystone pipeline oil spill in northeast South Dakota
Field testing rules out Keystone pipeline oil spill in northeast South Dakota
Line shut down Thursday as authorities in Marshall County investigated report of leak
Officials in a rural northeast South Dakota county are breathing a sigh of relief after what was feared to be an oil spill from the Keystone pipeline was determined to be a false alarm.
The Marshall County Emergency Management office responded Thursday to a report of a potential oil spill on farm ground near Langford, about a mile from the pipeline. The landowner who reported the potential leak discovered the questionable substance in a water well on his property.
But after testing and investigation by both the county’s emergency management services and TransCanada (TC) Energy — owner and operator of the Keystone pipeline — the liquid was determined to be unrelated to oil or the pipeline itself.
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Marshall County Emergency Manager Logan Roeher told The Dakota Scout Friday that test results conducted on-site helped investigators reach their initial conclusion.
“Everything (in the results) is saying it isn’t that here,” he said, pointing to an aerial drone inspection of the area by both Marshall County officials and TC Energy in addition to the on-site field tests.
However, an abundance of caution was taken before the determination was made. The pipeline itself was shut down for about five hours Thursday afternoon, and laboratory tests by both TC Energy and a third-party investigator are in the process of being conducted to confirm the authenticity of the initial findings indicating the absence of oil. As a courtesy, the company also plans to test water samples from the landowner’s well, a spokesman with the company told The Scout.
"The Keystone System was operating safely with no issues. The pipeline was shut down out of an abundance of caution to address a landowner call that upon investigation was completely unrelated to the pipeline,” a statement from the company on Friday said. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our people, the communities where we operate, and our assets.”
Commissioned in 2010, the pipeline transports about 622,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska, where the line splits in two before continuing south. It enters South Dakota in Marshall County before traveling through nine other counties and exiting to the south.
Leaks, or even minor closures, can not only have devestating environmental impacts, but can also lead to spikes in global prices.
In 2017, a Keystone pipeline leak spilled about 407,000 gallons in Marshall County.
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