2026年7月12日 美国东部时间15:11 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
美国联邦政府日前宣布一项和解提案，要求基石管道的所有者和运营商为2022年12月发生的一起重大原油泄漏事故支付2690万美元民事罚款。此次事故向堪萨斯州一条溪流泄漏了近50万加仑原油。
据美国环境保护署（EPA）透露，该和解协议还要求该公司斥资约4000万美元，以防止未来发生类似事故。
美国司法部与堪萨斯州政府一同联合环境保护署，指控这家管道运营商——总部位于加拿大的South Bow公司——违反了美国和该州的清洁水法。此次拟议中的和解将解决这些指控。
2022年的管道破裂事故向位于堪萨斯州华盛顿县一处乡村牧场的溪流泄漏了近1.3万桶重质原油，该地点距离堪萨斯城西北约150英里。
根据美国政府问责局2021年的一份报告，此次事故是美国九年来规模最大的陆上原油管道泄漏事件，泄漏量超过了该管道系统此前22起泄漏事故的总和。泄漏的原油总量几乎可以填满一个标准奥林匹克游泳池。
根据周五在堪萨斯州美国地区法院提交的拟议法令，South Bow公司还将向堪萨斯州支付超过300万美元，用于环境修复项目。该提案需经过30天的公众意见征询期后，由法官批准。
美国环境保护署执法办公室助理管理员杰弗里·霍尔在一份声明中表示：“此次原油泄漏覆盖了陆地和水域，导致河道失去生态功能、无法使用，需要开展大规模清理和修复工作。这笔巨额罚款体现了此次环境破坏的严重性。”
South Bow公司的高管周日并未立即回复记者寻求置评的电话和邮件，但该公司此前告诉加拿大通讯社，在收到美国官员的整改指令前，他们已“主动”启动了该区域的清理工作。清理工作已于2024年初完成。
基石管道的建设方TC能源公司已于2024年，即堪萨斯州清理工作完成后，将South Bow分拆为一家独立企业。
此次事故未造成管道工作人员或当地居民受伤，官员们表示公共供水系统未受泄漏影响。不过美国政府周五随和解提案一同提交的诉状显示，有超过2700只动物因此受伤或死亡。该区域是濒危物种长耳蝙蝠的栖息地。
美国一家工程咨询公司在2023年5月为美国政府提交的报告中指出，发生泄漏的基石管道系统弯道段自2010年12月安装以来就处于“过度受力”状态——这很可能是因为施工活动改变了管道周围的土地状况。周五提交至法院的诉状称，管道下方的土壤“压实不当”，尽管该公司在2013年重新开挖了该区域，但并未更换该段管道。
全长2689英里的基石管道系统负责将加拿大产的稠厚油砂原油输送至伊利诺伊州、俄克拉荷马州和德克萨斯州的炼油厂。
今年4月，唐纳德·特朗普总统批准South Bow公司与另一家企业建设第二条从加拿大通往怀俄明州的管道，这是规模达80亿美元的基石XL大型管道项目的缩小版。该大型项目曾在2021年因环保顾虑被前总统乔·拜登的政府叫停。
Keystone Pipeline operator agrees to pay $26.9 million over 2022 oil spill
2026-07-12 15:11 EDT / CBS/AP
The federal government has announced a settlement proposal that would require the owner and operator of the Keystone Pipeline to pay $26.9 million in civil penalties, linked to a major oil spill that dumped nearly half a million gallons of crude oil into a Kansas creek in December 2022.
The agreement would also require the company to spend an estimated $40 million to prevent future accidents, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Alongside the Department of Justice and the state of Kansas, the EPA accused pipeline’s operator, Canada-based South Bow, of violating U.S. and state clean water laws. The proposed settlement would resolve those allegations.
The 2022 rupture dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek running through a rural pasture in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles northwest of Kansas City.
The accident was the largest onshore crude pipeline spill in the U.S. in nine years and surpassed all 22 previous ones on the same pipeline system combined, according to a 2021 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The total amount of oil spilled would have nearly filled an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
South Bow also would pay Kansas more than $3 million for environmental restoration projects under a proposed decree filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Kansas. A judge would have to approve the proposal after a 30-day public comment period.
“The oil spill blanketed land and water, rendering the waterway lifeless and useless and requiring extensive cleanup and remediation,” Jeffrey Hall, the EPA’s assistant administrator for its enforcement office, said in a statement. “The substantial penalty reflects the seriousness of the environmental harm.”
South Bow officials did not respond immediately Sunday to a phone message and email seeking comment, but the company told The Canadian Press that it “proactively” began cleaning up the area before receiving directives from U.S. officials. The cleanup was completed early in 2024.
The company that built the pipeline, TC Energy, spun off South Bow as a separate firm in 2024, after the Kansas cleanup was done.
No pipeline workers or area residents were injured, and officials said public water supplies weren’t affected by the spill. However, a complaint filed Friday by the U.S. government along with the proposed settlement said more than 2,700 animals were harmed or killed. The area is home to an endangered species, the long-eared bat.
In a May 2023 report for the U.S. government, an engineering consulting firm said that a bend in the Keystone system where the spill occurred had been “overstressed” since its installation in December 2010 — likely because construction activity itself altered the land around the pipe. The complaint filed Friday in court said soil under the pipe had been “improperly compacted” and that while the company re-excavated the site in 2013, it did not replace that section of pipe.
The 2,689-mile Keystone system carries thick, Canadian tar sands oil to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas.
In April, President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead for South Bow and another company to build a second pipeline from Canada to Wyoming, a smaller version of a massive $8 billion pipeline project known as Keystone XL blocked by former President Joe Biden’s administration in 2021 over environmental concerns.
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