Clean-up crews are on the scene Friday in North Dakota after more than 1 million litres of oil spilled from the Keystone pipeline..Officials with TC Energy said the spill is the equivalent of 9,120 barrels of oil, or half the size of a football field in Edinburg, ND..“A drop in pressure was detected by TC Energy’s operations control center at approximately 9:20 p.m. M.T. on October 29, 2019. We immediately began the process to shut down the pipeline, activated our emergency response procedures and dispatched our ground technicians to respond to the incident,” the company said in a statement..“Our on-site team is focused on responding to the release and has begun recovering oil, using specialized equipment.”.Karl Rockeman, director of the state’s Department of Environmental Quality’s division of water quality, said in a statement the spill has affected a wetlands area.. logo.jpeg .The company says the pipeline, from Hardisty, Alberta to Cushing, Ok. and to Wood River/Patoka, Il. is expected to remain shut down as crews work around the clock to repair it..“We will not know specifics about the cause of the incident until we complete the investigation and the segment of the pipeline is analyzed by an independent metallurgical lab,” said the company..TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, said the spill has caused no injuries or effected wildlife..There have been protests over the proposed building of the Keystone XL pipeline which would travel 4,180 km from Alberta to Nebraska with construction to hopefully begin next year..Environmentalists were quick to jump on the company..“We don’t yet know the extent of the damage from this latest tar sands spill, but what we do know is that this is not the first time this pipeline has spilled toxic tar sands, and it won’t be the last. We’ve always said it’s not a question of whether a pipeline will spill, but when, and once again TC Energy has made our case for us, said Catherine Collentine, of the Sierra Club, in a statement..A 2017 leak from the pipeline in South Dakota spilled 1.5 million litres of oil.
