TC Energy has agreed to pay more than $52,000 for the Keystone Pipeline oil spill last year that released about 383,000 gallons of crude oil onto about five acres of farmland outside of Edinburg, N.D. in October.
The settlement, dated Aug. 10, states that the Canada-based pipeline company formerly called TransCanada Energy agreed to pay a $32,000 administrative penalty as well as a $20,354 environmental emergency cost recovery fee to the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality.
DEQ Director Dave Glatt said the $52,354 payment was received on Aug. 10.
When determining the administrative penalty for a pipeline company responsible for a spill on North Dakota soil, Glatt said factors, such as how much damage was done and how quickly the company acted to clean the oil, are considered. The cost recovery fee covers the cost of DEQ's own response to the spill.
Glatt said the administrative penalty in this case is relatively low, because of how quickly TC Energy responded to the spill and how quickly it was able to remediate the site.
"(TC Energy) were able to shut down the pipeline very quickly, and that resulted in minimizing the impact and so they were able to clean this up in short order," Glatt said. "Some sites, it may take years to clean them up, but that wasn't the case here."
As of earlier this summer, the spill has been contained and the site remediated to the DEQ's satisfaction. Glatt said that, after the contaminated soil was removed and taken to a landfill, TC Energy workers reconfigured the land to its original contour and re-vegetated the site.
DEQ will continue to monitor the site to make sure the grasses and plants return to their normal growth, but he expects there will be no long-term impacts to the land because of the spill or remediation work.
"At this point in time, we're following up to make sure all the site work they did is holding true and is protective of the environment and doesn't continue to have issues in the future," he said.
Glatt expects DEQ inspectors will return to the site once later this year and again next year to check its progress.
They are still waiting to hear from the farmer whose property was impacted about whether he has put the land back into production, Glatt said.
Overall, Glatt said the whole process of cleaning up the Edinburg spill went smoothly.
"I would say this was kind of textbook -- how we'd like to see them done -- and probably one of the better sites for remediation that we've seen," he said.
