A 12,000-Barrel Oil Pipeline Spill Exposes Years of Lax Oversight
Aggressive construction techniques and a pipeline pushed to the limit left a vital artery for crude in America's heartland vulnerable to leaks.
When a seam joining two segments of the Keystone oil pipeline ruptured on a frigid night last December — spewing more than 12,000 barrels of heavy crude that polluted a Kansas creek — the disaster had already been years in the making.
More than a decade ago, US regulators warned that the type of weld that would go on to trigger the worst spill in Keystone’s history had a pattern of failure. And since Keystone began operation in 2010, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has notified operator TC Energy Corp. at least five times that elements of Keystone’s building and operating practices posed safety risks.