Federal investigators say that construction damage was likely to blame for an oil spill earlier this month from the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota.
The Keystone Pipeline is a 2,687-mile crude oil pipeline that runs from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska, where it then splits, with one portion running to Illinois and the other to Texas. It is owned by TransCanada, the same firm that is seeking to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
The spill happened on rural farmland near the small community of Amherst, S.D., and was initially estimated to have released some 210,000 gallons of crude. Federal investigators say that they now have an "unconfirmed lower spill estimate," without specifying how much.
According to a report released by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the company detected a pressure drop in the pipeline early in the morning on Nov. 16 and started to shut it down three minutes later.
They say the spill was likely caused because of mechanical damage that occurred when this portion of the pipeline was built in 2008. The damage, the investigators add, was probably caused by a weight installed at the time. "Such weights are used in places where changing water levels could make a pipeline float," NPR's Jeff Brady reported.
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Source: NPR
