At least 4,200 gallons of oil escaped a 16-inch pipeline in northwest Oklahoma City on Monday, leaving residents dealing with a smelly lake of crude and wondering what happened and why.
The accident, which happened about 10:30 a.m. near NW 184 and Portland, created a geyser of oil that could be seen by passing motorists until the line’s operator was able to shut it down.
The pipeline was carrying crude between Cushing and Midland, Texas, when it was struck by a crew building roads for a neighborhood addition.
Some oil initially flowed into nearby storm drains. Fire officials, working with the contractor, were able to build an artificial lake to capture the remainder of the spill.
“The most concerning thing to us is we haven’t heard a whole lot about whether or not there’s anything to worry about,” said Lacey Becker, who moved into her home just north of where the accident happened about six months ago.
Becker, 29, said she had no idea a major oil line was located near her home.
“Is there anything we need to be watching for or concerned with an oil leak like this? Any sort of communication about what is going on over there would be good.”
Fire officials said the mishap was not threat to passing motorists or a neighborhood located east of the accident scene.
The smelly lake of crude left behind could take days to clean up.
Exactly how much oil spilled won’t be known until the pipeline is repaired and the cleanup is complete, said Matt Skinner, the regulatory program/public information manager of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
The damaged pipeline is owned by Energy Transfer, which will determine the exact amount of oil that was spilled.
Based on the pipeline’s size, though, Skinner said “at least hundreds of barrels” of oil were spilled as a result of the cut. At 42 gallons a barrel, that would be at least 4,200 gallons, likely more.
Oil from OKC spill came from Cushing storage tanks
The pipeline, one of several that run through Oklahoma County, carries crude oil from Cushing into Texas.
Known as the “pipeline crossroads of the world,” Cushing has more than 430 oil storage tanks spread out along the southern and northern edges of town. Cushing, which sits about 70 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, was once home to 53 refineries, but the last one was closed by Kerr McGee in 1987.
A Texas company is set to build a $5.6 billion “next generation” refinery in Cushing that will be one the country’s largest, processing 250,000 barrels of light crude daily.
One task for investigators will be to determine if the pipeline was properly marked. An answer to that question won’t be available until after the site has been surveyed and information from the pipeline owner is reviewed.
Another nearby resident who works as a production consultant in the oil and gas industry said he was thankful no one was hurt.
“The only concern I have is whether proper procedures were followed to locate the line,” said Dale Scott. “Our policy is to always call before we dig.”
“When proper procedures aren’t followed, you end up with an environmental mess like what we have here. Somebody could have gotten hurt and it’s going to cost someone a pretty large chunk of change.”
According to OKIE811, the company that requested for the lines to be located was First Water Contracting, an area road builder. The locator requests were for buried oil and natural gas, telecommunications and electrical lines in that area before work began.
OKIE811 is a nonprofit that works with Oklahoma companies that operate underground facilities. When OKIE811 receives a request for line location, it requests companies with services in the dig area mark their own lines. OKIE811 processes about 1.1 million requests annually.
Companies that belong to OKIE811 were notified to fulfill its request, said Susan Bohl, OKIE811’s executive director.
If investigators learn the lines were properly marked, the excavator operator could be fined by the Corporation Commission and have to pay cleanup costs.
If the lines were not properly marked, Energy Transfer could face potential fines and have to pay for cleaning up the mess itself, officials said.
The scene was released to Oklahoma City’s storm water quality unit and to contractors who will begin to clean up the spill about 2:30 p.m., fire officials said.
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