Leak Near San Francisco Contained
Date: 30-Apr-04
Country: USA
Author: Adam Tanner
A pipeline belonging to energy company Kinder Morgan Energy Partners leaked diesel oil on Tuesday night, affecting between 300 and 600 acres of marshland near Suisun Bay north of San Francisco, Coast Guard spokesman Glynn Smith said.
Officials said they did not know how much fuel had leaked and it was not clear why news of the spill did not become publicly known until Thursday. The Coast Guard arrived at the scene at about 4 p.m. on Wednesday, nearly a full day after the spill, Smith said.
"The original spill began approximately 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday and the computerized system that monitors the line that Kinder Morgan has detected a problem in the pipeline," Smith said. "The valves on either side of the breach were closed and Kinder Morgan sent out a crew."
Kinder Morgan Partners, controlled by Houston-based pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Inc., is the nation's largest pipeline master limited partnership.
Smith said that hot sun had helped evaporate much of the leaked diesel fuel since the spill.
"Yesterday, you could see a sheen on the water," the Coast Guard official said. "The folks coming back from the scene today are all telling me that you can't see anything, it's a hot day, a sunny day, and diesel is evaporating."
Kinder Morgan spokesman Jerry Engelhardt said the 14-inch diameter pipeline, which is buried under Suisun Bay adjacent to the San Francisco-Sacramento railroad line, was shut down after the problem was detected.
Another spokesman Larry Pierce said the source of the leak in the welded steel pipe was discovered on Wednesday between 1:30 and 2 p.m. in a marsh area.
"We are confident that we have contained the release; it is an area that has been boomed off," Pierce said. "At this time there is no indication whatsoever that any product has been released to either San Francisco Bay or the Suisun slough."
The pipeline carries diesel and jet fuels and gasoline from refineries in the San Francisco Bay Area to Sacramento and points east and north.
Experts said it would be unusual for news of an oil leak to be kept two days from the public, especially in an environmentally sensitive area.
"That's a violation of what I understand the protocol for handling oil spills is supposed to be," said Mary Nichols, director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of California at Los Angeles. "Normally there are announcements made right away."
Kinder Morgan spokesman Pierce could not explain the delay in informing the public.
Speaking about diesel fuel, Nichols, a former secretary of the California Resources Agency added: "That's the most toxic petroleum product that could be spilled, especially in a sensitive habitat like Suisun marsh."
Suisun Bay, fed by the San Joaquin and Sacramento river delta, is home to one of the nation's largest inland estuarine wetlands, providing important habitat to water fowl, said Craig Noble, a spokesman for the environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Ronald Tjeerdema, a biologist at University of California at Davis, said diesel can kill fish and other marine life invertebrates by shutting down their nervous systems if the concentration high enough.
"Diesel is more water soluble than crude, but it also tends to evaporate quickly, especially when it is warm and windy like it is today," he said.
(Additional reporting by Leonard Anderson in San Francisco; Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; and Timothy Gardner in New York)
