(05/25/10) "Oil spills into Alaska pipeline containment area" (by Dan Joling, Denver Post in association with the Associated Press)

[Spang]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Alaska environmental officials say crude oil at a pump station of the trans-Alaska pipeline flowed into a tank and then a containment area when a valve failed to close.

The quantity of the release into the containment area, a pad surrounded by berms and underlain with an impervious liner, was not immediately known,

The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon during a scheduled pipeline shutdown at Pump Station 9 near Fort Greely, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks.

Tom DeRuyter (dee-RIE'-ter) of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation says power was switched to an alternate source and a control circuit failed to control a valve, allowing oil to flow into the tank and then the secondary containment.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the pipeline operator, responded to the spill and closed the valve.

The Source (http://www.denverpost.com/rawnews/ci_15160322)

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Pipeline Shutdown After Oil Tank Spill

Several thousands of barrels worth of oil have spilled at an Alyeska Pipeline pump station near Delta Junction.

While conducting a routine test of fire detection equipment, Pump Station 9 experienced a power failure and was shut down. As a result, a release valve opened allowing crude oil to overflow into a secondary containment area which began at 10:20 a.m. May 25, and stopped at 12:15 p.m that afternoon.

All the oil is believed to be contained in the secondary containment area with the current oil pool sitting at roughly 30 to 50 feet wide, 500 feet long and at an unknown depth but Alyeska Pipeline officials estimate "the potential spill volume to containment is up to several thousand barrels. The containment area has a capacity of 104,500 barrels."

While the pipeline has been temporarily shut down, no injuries have been reported and personnel have been evacuated. State officials are concerned about vapors venting from the oil which could potentially spark a fire.

Already five people from Alyeska and three from the Department of Transportation have been sent to the scene with additional spill response crews and equipment en route.

According to state officials, the spill does not appear to have had any environmental effects and an Incident Management Team has been alerted and activated to handle the situation.

The Source (http://www.ktva.com/ci_15159135)

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The consortium of companies that own TAPS today includes:

BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc. 46.93%
ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska, Inc. 28.29%
ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, 20.34%
Unocal Pipeline Company, 1.36%
Koch Alaska Pipeline Company, L.L.C., 3.08%

The Source (http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/about.html)