According to North Dakota environmental regulators, the spill of roughly 383,000 gallons impacted an estimated half-acre of wetlands.
“The leak has been contained,” said Karl Rockeman, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality’s division of water quality. “It is one of the larger spills in the state,” he added, according to The Hill.
TC Energy – formerly known as TransCanada – said on Wednesday that it shut down the 590,000-bpd line after it detected a drop in pressure. The pipeline apparently had a rupture, according to OilPrice.com.
“TC Energy immediately began the process to shut down the pipeline, activated its emergency response procedures and dispatched ground technicians to assess the situation,” the company said. The company did not specify if the entire pipeline was shut down or just a portion.
However, the repair and cleanup could take as long as two to three months, according to Reuters. The spill took place about three miles (5 km) northwest of Edinburg, in Walsh County, North Dakota, where part of the pipeline is underground.
This is not the first spill associated with the Keystone pipeline. In November 2017, the pipeline ruptured and spilled more than 200,000 gallons in South Dakota. The pipeline was offline for weeks, according to NBC News.
