BP finds leak in major Pacific Northwest pipeline, resumes delivering fuel to Seattle-Tacoma airport
SEATTLE (AP) — Oil company BP found source of leak A major Pacific Northwest pipeline system will allow the flow of jet fuel to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to restart on Tuesday, helping to avoid any major disruptions to Thanksgiving travel.
Separately, Washington state regulators announced they will fine the company $3.8 million for a 2023 leak from the same pipeline system nearby.
The 400-mile-long (644-kilometer-long) Olympic Pipeline is the backbone of the region’s system for transporting gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products from refineries near the Canadian border to distribution terminals in the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascades, including major cities in Washington and Oregon.
BP shut down the pipeline system on Nov. 17, following intermittent outages after a farmer discovered a gas glow on Nov. 11 in a drainage ditch at a blueberry farm near Everett, north of Seattle. This spurred Washington Governor Bob Ferguson into action. declare an emergency Last week, restrictions on how long truck drivers can work were lifted to enable them to deliver fuel by road to Sea-Tac. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek issued a similar order Monday.
But late Monday, after excavating an area where two pipes — one carrying gasoline and the other carrying jet fuel — ran side by side, BP said it had found a leak in the gasoline pipeline. This allowed him to restart the flow of fuel to the airport and begin designing a repair plan for the gas pipeline.
Authorities and BP are still assessing how much gasoline leaked. BP said responders deployed recovery equipment to contain and clean up the spill, and no gasoline was observed outside the response area.
“It will take several days for the airport’s fuel reserves to be replenished, but early indications are that travel will not be affected,” Washington Senator Maria Cantwell said in a statement. “That’s why we need strong pipeline safety oversight and better leak detection technology.”
In a letter to BP last week, Cantwell said the company’s failure to detect the leak before the blueberry farmer raised serious questions about its inspection, maintenance and leak detection capabilities.
Delta and Alaska Airlines, which have added fuel stops to some flights, said Tuesday they were resuming normal operations and continuing to load some fuel until the airport’s reserves are replenished.
Previous closures of the pipeline had caused gas prices to rise in Washington and Oregon.
The pipeline has a long history of leaks, including a fireball that killed three teenagers recreationally along a stream in Bellingham, Washington, in 1999. The accident led to an overhaul of federal pipeline regulation.
in 2023A 25,000-gallon (95,000-liter) spill near Conway, north of Seattle, sent fuel into nearby streams and wetlands.
On Monday, the state Department of Ecology announced that the cause of the leak was a corroded carbon steel nut on a device used to monitor the pipeline’s pressure. The company’s inspections did not identify the nut as a problem, but it should not be used due to the possibility of corrosion, the department said.
The department said it was seeking more than $4.6 million from BP for this spill; $3.8 million in fines plus $822,000 in response costs.
The company, which has until Dec. 18 to appeal, said it was reviewing the department’s findings.
“As the Washington Department of Ecology noted, our collaborative and robust response with our partners limited the affected area, reduced environmental impacts, and prioritized public health,” BP said in a statement. he said.
