CALGARY – Alberta regulators have approved the restart of an oil pipeline which caused the worst spill in the province in 40 years, nearly four months after the Rainbow pipeline leaked 2,800 barrels of crude onto northern muskeg.
The Plains Midstream Canada-operated line will be able to resume full operations once it meets a number of conditions set out by the Energy Resources Conservation Board in its notice Tuesday.
In addition to completing excavation on 10 sites previously set out by the board and implementing weekly aerial surveys of the line, the company will be required to revamp its operating procedures and meet with local stakeholders prior to restarting the line.
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Regulatory oversight will continue after the pipeline resumes operations at reduced rates, said ERCB spokesman Darin Barter.
“After startup, if they get to that point, there will be a series of ongoing conditions that really scrutinize and evaluate the way they are operating that pipeline,” Barter said.
The 220,000 barrel-per-day Rainbow line, which extends from Zama, in northwest Alberta, to Nipisi and on to Edmonton, was shut down April 29 after locals in the Little Buffalo area detected a leak.
The southern portion of the line was reopened shortly after, but the northern outage forced a number of oil producers in the region, and into the Northwest Territories, to truck out or shut in volumes after locals detected a leak near the community of Little Buffalo in northwestern Alberta.
Cleanup efforts continue at the spill site, where the flow of crude oil was contained by a beaver pond.
Third-party engineering assessments determined the pipeline failure was caused by a faulty weld on a weld-on sleeve commonly used to reinforce pipe.
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