S.D. looking into Dakota Access oil pipeline leak in Spink County

A leaky surge pump along the Dakota Access oil pipeline spilled 84 gallons of crude oil in April at the pump station just north of Crandon in Spink County.

That’s according to Brian Walsh, an environmental scientist with state Department of Environment and Natural Resources Ground Water Quality Program.

The pipeline, which will move oil from shale formations in western North Dakota roughly 1,170 miles to Patoka, Ill., is not yet operational. In north-central South Dakota, it cuts through Campbell, McPherson, Edmunds, Faulk and Spink counties.

According to Dakota Media Group archives, the pump station is on 10.59 acres of land in rural Spink County that Dakota Access purchased Feb. 3, 2016, from Donald Gene and Rita Mary Masat. Crandon is southeast of Redfield and east of Tulare.

“At the pipeline’s pump station there’s what’s called a surge tank, which is used to store crude oil occasionally during the regular operation of the pipeline,” Walsh said in a phone interview with the Dakota Media Group Tuesday. “And connected to that tank is a pump, which pumps oil back into the pipeline system, and the leak occurred at that surge pump.”

Richard B. Kuprewicz said pipeline pump stations are typically built in such a way that oil releases stay within the station boundaries. He is a pipeline infrastructure expert and incident investigator with more than 40 years of energy industry experience.

“The releases in the pump station are better than having it on the main line. It sounds like it occurred during the process of commissioning the line,” Kuprewicz said.

“As far as this happening during the start-up, I don’t want to make it sound like a major event, but the fact that you had oil leaving the tank says there’s something not right with their procedures. They might have been trying to hurry,” he said.

The cause could also be due to human error, he added.

“It shouldn’t happen, but if it did happen, at least it happened in the pump station. They need to figure out why this happened,” Kuprewicz said

Vicki Granado, spokeswoman for the Texas-based developer Energy Transfer Partners, said the spill was due to a malfunction during the line fill process.

“Before a line goes into service you have to fill it with crude oil first,” she said.

Granado said the line-fill process should be finished within the next few weeks and the pipeline should be in service by June 1.

Walsh said all the crude oil was recovered through absorbent materials and was contained in drums, then put back into the line. Dakota Access was responsible for cleaning up the spill, which it has done, he said.

The state will not fine or issue a citation against the company since the spill was reported and cleaned up within the required time frame, Walsh said.

The spilled crude oil, which is roughly equal to two barrels, is a very small amount compared to the 470,000 barrels of crude oil the pipeline is designed to carry in a day.

“The whole pump station is lined because they have some above-ground pipeline infrastructure there, so if it does leak it makes it easier to clean up and safer for the environment,” Walsh said.

Granado said the spill stayed within the company’s workspace, or containment area, which is covered with a special lining “that does not allow anything to actually touch or hit the soil.”

Some gravel was removed from the spill site and will be taken to the Brown County Landfill after sampling of the soils is finished, according to Walsh. The Brown County Landfill routinely takes deliveries of contaminated soil from throughout the region.

Once the state receives the paperwork for disposal and spill site samples, the case will be closed, Walsh said.

This is the first and only spill in the state associated with the Dakota Access Pipeline to date, he said.