Over 380,000 liters of oil spills from the Keystone pipeline in North Dakota
An estimated 9,120 barrels of crude oil have spilled from a leak in the Keystone pipeline in North Dakota this week, officials said.
That equates to about 383,000 liters of oil, which can fill more than half of an Olympic-size pool.
The leak was discovered Tuesday night near Edinburgh, a small community northwest of Grand Forks. The spill has affected a wetland area, according to a press release from the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality.
ABC News, TC Energy
Parts of the Keystone Pipeline, which carries crude oil from the tar sands of Canada through several US states, was shut down while emergency teams rushed to the scene. The oil spill affects an area of about 2,500 square feet of land, or less than half the size of a football field, according to a press release from TC Energy, which operates the pipeline.
The company, formerly known as TransCanada, said that monitoring of air quality, water and wildlife is ongoing in the region and no damage or wildlife impact has been reported.
Meanwhile, emergency crews have begun extracting oil using vacuum cleaners, backhoe loaders and other on-site special equipment. They were still working to contain the spill on Thursday afternoon.
Although TC Energy made its first estimate for oil spills, the Alberta, Canada-based company noted, "We will not have the exact figure until oil recovery is complete."
"Our crews will remain focused on oil recovery and then prepare to repair the pipeline," TC Energy said in a statement Thursday. "We will provide updates as they become available."
North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality / Taylor DeVries
In November 2017, an estimated 210,000 liters of crude oil from the Keystone pipeline leaked onto farmland in a rural area of South Dakota, near the North Dakota border.
The $ 5.2 billion pipeline was activated in 2010 as part of a system that will also include the proposed $ 8 billion Keystone XL pipeline, which is designed to transport oil from Canada down to the Gulf Coast. The project has led to protests and legal challenges from indigenous rights groups and environmental organizations.