While we must emphasize that a significant spill is unlikely, we must also be prepared for any potential circumstance. It’s important to understand that if a spill does occur, TransCanada is responsible for providing the cleanup expertise, equipment and personnel needed to reclaim a site to its pre-spill condition.
To ensure we’re ready for any situation, TransCanada will identify a combination of company personnel and contract resources in its Emergency Response Plan (ERP). Detailed analysis of spill scenarios helps us determine where to locate these resources so that we can respond as quickly and effectively as possible.
Personnel and equipment are typically located close to navigable waterways or other water crossings; populated or urban areas; sensitive areas, such as drinking water locations and aquifers; and ecological, historical and archaeological resources. However, we will have the capability to respond at any location along the pipeline within six hours.
Our ERP also includes plans for a worst-case leak. This approach calculates the largest possible spill volume, enabling us to plan accordingly. This ensures we place adequate resources in the right areas to respond as quickly as possible, protect the environment and ensure public safety along our route.
TransCanada’s Operational Control Centre (OCC) is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Trained operators at the OCC manage the most sophisticated monitoring equipment available, providing them with the ability to respond to any potential leak. We can stop the pipeline and isolate a suspected leak within minutes from the time our sensors detect an abnormality.
If an abnormal condition is detected (such as a small drop in pressure), the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA) will alert operators in the OCC to immediately shut down pump stations along the pipeline. Once the pumps have been stopped, the OCC will close isolation valves near the leak to limit potential impacts. In addition to shutting down the pipeline, the OCC will immediately dispatch pipeline emergency response personnel to the scene. All internal and external notifications will occur as quickly as possible.
In the unlikely event of a spill, TransCanada’s Emergency Response Plan (ERP) will implement the most modern strategies, techniques, and equipment to clean up any environment along the pipeline. We work with regulatory agencies to develop our strategies based on conditions such as land or surface water, weather, receptors, geology, soil type, the amount of oil spilled and the type of oil.
Ultimately, the responsible environmental regulatory agency will outline the remediation criteria that we need to meet. Typically, we will implement traditional proven mechanical cleanup methods, such as suction equipment (i.e. vac trucks), hand removal, excavation, absorbents and skimmers. There are also environments where alternative techniques may be appropriate, such as burning the oil, which can remove significant quantities in a matter of minutes.
Regulatory agencies are required to approve the use of these alternative techniques. Therefore, since time is of the essence when cleaning up a spill – and these measures require more detailed planning and regulatory approval with longer decision-making timeframes – mechanical removal is often the preferred strategy.
The Gulf Coast Pipeline Project is an approximate 485-mile (780-kilometre), 36-inch crude oil pipeline beginning in Cushing, Okla., and extending south to Nederland, Texas, to serve the Gulf Coast marketplace. The 48-mile (77-kilometre) Houston Lateral Project is an additional project under development to transport oil to refineries in the Houston area.
Construction on the Gulf Coast Pipeline commenced August, 2012, with an anticipated in-service date of late 2013. The Gulf Coast Project will have the initial capacity to transport 700,000 barrels of oil per day and can be expanded to transport 830,000 barrels of oil per day to Gulf Coast refineries.
Shipper Application and Accounting
Visit the Keystone Shipper Information page on TransCanada.com