Keystone: nearly 800,000 litres of oil spilled from the pipeline in South Dakota

Keystone: nearly 800,000 litres of oil spilled from the pipeline in South Dakota

Environment · ·

A leak from the Keystone pipeline, long opposed by indigenous communities and environmentalists, has caused the spill of nearly one million litres of crude oil. A disaster that had been foretold.

A disaster that had been foretold: the Keystone pipeline. On Thursday morning, a leak near Marshall County, in the American state of South Dakota, caused the spill of nearly 800,000 litres of oil (210,000 gallons). This was announced by TransCanada, the oil company that operates the pipeline, stating that it had identified the leak at 5.45 in the morning and had intervened within 15 minutes of the disaster, completely isolating the leak and activating emergency measures.

keystone pipeline, oleodotto, sversamento, transcanada
800,000 litres of oil spilled in South Dakota, in the United States, due to a leak in the Keystone pipeline

15 minutes during which approximately 5,000 barrels of oil escaped into the surrounding environment, turning the leak into one of the largest spills in United States history after that of the Deepwater Horizon. The pipeline connects Canadian oilfields in Alberta with ports and refineries in Texas, passing through North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois.

mappa keystone xl
The map of the Keystone pipeline and the route of the Keystone XL extension

The pipeline nobody wants

In 2015, then United States president Barack Obama had called for the suspension of the pipeline expansion project, known as Keystone XL, also in light of the commitment to honour the pledges made following the signing of the Paris Agreement and the desire to reduce the United States' impact on climate change. But less than a week after his inauguration, President Donald Trump ordered that decision reversed.