A year later, cause still unknown for 250,000-gallon gas pipeline spill in Anthony
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico -- Officials with pipeline owner/operator Kinder Morgan told the Dona Ana County Commission on Tuesday that they are still working to find the cause of a massive oil spill that happened last year near the city of Anthony. Officials did say corrosion played a part.
On Dec. 13th, 2018, officials discovered 12-inch pipe leaked more than 250,000 gallons of gasoline in a ditch near Three Saints and Harding Roads, according to officials at the time. The spill extended north and south approximately to W. Berino and Harding Road. On Tuesday, pipeline company officials said they had recovered about 280,000 gallons of gas, which they said was 60 percent of the total gallons spilled.
"If you visit the site, today, you'll still see an open ditch, spoil piles on both sids," said Allen Fore, a Kinder Morgan spokesperson. Fore added that the contaminated soil has been removed.
Over the past months, Kinder Morgan has been working with several agencies to clean up the spill including the New Mexico Environment Department and the Elephant Butte Irrigation District.
The next step, according to pipeline company officials, is to replace the Anthony drain, but ground water levels need to be a certain level before that is done.
Kinder Morgan has submitted a Root-Cause analysis study to the Department of Transportation for review. Once a cause is determined, they will address the County Commissioners.
"In the long term, we want to make sure the site is safe, that we are continuing to monitor any residual effects. We also want to determine, once we have to root cause analysis, do we have appropriate protections in place to avoid another incident like this," Fore said
He added construction will take another four mont hs, and the remediation process will continue for the next few years.
Kinder Morgan, the parent company of El Paso Natural Gas, is headquartered in Houston. One of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America, Kinder Morgan owns an interest or operates approximately 84,000 miles of pipelines and 152 terminals. Its pipelines transport natural gas, refined petroleum products, crude oil, carbon dioxide and more.
