FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015
TEHUACANA CREEK, TEXAS
Reported ‘sheen’ on Tehuacana Creek raises oil pipeline
concerns.
The Texas Railroad Commission and private pipeline operators
were looking for signs of a petroleum leak Thursday at Tehuacana Creek, a few
miles east of Waco on State Highway 6. The commission, which oversees the oil
and gas industry, got a call Wednesday from a pilot who had noticed a “sheen”
on the flooded creek, commission spokeswoman Ramona Nye said. The pipeline
companies joined the commission and the U.S. Department of Transportation in
investigating the incident, and crews laid down foam “booms” across the creek
to capture any surface pollution. However, no sheen was clearly visible from
the ground Thursday, and Nye said the status of the investigation was unclear
late that day.
Then a two-day investigation was implemented and the leak in
the pipeline was discovered.
An Oklahoma-based pipeline company has begun cleaning up a
spill of diesel fuel near Tehuacana Creek after a two-day investigation
determined its leaking pipeline was the cause of a “sheen” on a pond near the
creek.
Contractors with Magellan Midstream Partners found the leak
Friday and were working to repair it while installing dikes and booms to
contain the floating fuel, said officials with the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality.
The TCEQ, which is overseeing the investigation and cleanup,
did not have an estimate of how much diesel was spilled. In a preliminary report to the federal
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Magellan estimated that
about 50 barrels had spilled, or 1,575 gallons.
Magellan spokesman Bruce Heine said Friday afternoon that
the true size of the spill “appears to be well below the amount we originally
reported to regulatory authorities.” He said the company is still investigating
the cause of the spill.
A TCEQ spokesman said the spill appeared to be contained in
a pond about 1,200 yards from Tehuacana Creek, and no fuel appeared to enter
the creek or the Brazos River downstream.
The spill site, located north of State Highway 6 just east
of Loop 340, is in a marshy floodplain, and contractors had to build a
temporary road of plywood to get equipment in to do the work.
Four pipelines traverse the marshy Tehuacana Creek
bottomlands north of Highway 6, according to a Texas Railroad Commission online
map. ExxonMobil’s pipeline carries gasoline, while Explorer Pipeline Co.,
Magellan Pipeline Co. and Koch Pipeline Co. transport refined petroleum
products through their pipes.
Magellan
is one of four pipeline operators in the immediate area, and regulators asked
all four to investigate after the spill was reported Wednesday evening.
A pilot for Koch Pipeline Company, one of the operators,
spotted the sheen while doing a routine surveillance run over the pipeline, a
federal pipeline safety official said.
Heine, the Magellan spokesman, said that when the company
got the call Wednesday evening, it promptly discontinued use of the
10-inch-diameter pipeline, which runs from Frost to Hearne.
The leak was expected to be repaired by late Friday.
Source: wacotrib.com