Keystone Pipeline Infographic: 'Built To Spill'

The construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, planned to run from the Canadian tar sands to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, has caused quite a stir. And now it's also led to the creation of a very detailed infographic.

Currently, thousands of protesters are conducting a two week sit-in at the White House to push President Obama to deny the permit for the oil pipeline. According to Tar Sands Action, over 300 people have been arrested to date.

On Friday, the State Department found that the pipeline would have "no significant impact" on the environment and suggested that the project move forward. Over the weekend, an interview aired of a former State Department official saying that Clinton would likely approve plans for the pipeline.

Earlier this month, an editorial in The New York Times opposed the pipeline, reading, "We have two main concerns: the risk of oil spills along the pipeline, which would traverse highly sensitive terrain, and the fact that the extraction of petroleum from the tar sands creates far more greenhouse emissions than conventional production does."

In a Tar Sands Action Press release, NASA’s Dr. James Hansen said, “If Obama chooses the dirty needle it will confirm that the President was just green-washing all along, like the other well-oiled coal-fired politicians, with no real intention of solving the addiction.” Hansen was among the protestors arrested at the White House Monday morning.

Emma Pullman of DeSmogBlog and Heather Libby of TckTckTck created a Keystone pipeline infographic, and in their statement, provided the following description:

TransCanada says their Keystone pipelines are the safest on the continent.

But what about those 12 spills in the past year? Since its operation began in June of 2010, the Keystone 1 pipeline has suffered more spills than any other 1st year pipeline in U.S. history, a track record which does not bode well for the proposed Keystone XL which tracks across one of the largest aquifers in the world – the Ogallala – which supplies drinking water to millions of mid-Westerners and provides 30% of the nation’s groundwater used for irrigation.

The Keystone pipeline map shows the spills documented in TransCanada's publicly released safety records alongside the proposed route for Keystone XL, indicating key risk areas near waterways and major metropolitan areas.

Check out the infographic below:

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this infographic said spill #5 was in South Carolina. It has been corrected to indicate that the spill was in South Dakota.

Comments

[Spencer P Lane]

05:03 PM on 09/01/2011

I voted proudly for Obama - Biden in '08. If the President decides that XL is O.K. then I will decide it's O.K. not to vote for him. I will NEVER vote for a GOP candidate so then I guess next year I just won't vote.

[kbkilche]

11:27 PM on 09/01/2011

Yeah, and consider that the REPUBLICAN gov. of NE is asking the DEMOCRATIC Pres. & Secy of State to do what's right for the environment...i would laugh if it didn't make me want to cry...

[Shane Nahumko]

05:08 PM on 08/31/2011

Wow, great infographic. I hope Heather and Emma don't mind that I borrowed it to include in everything you don't want to know about the tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline - http://theendisalwaysnear.blogspot.com/2011/08/keystone-xl-rube-goldberg-machine.html

[The last sane American]

07:37 AM on 09/01/2011

I was particularly thrilled with the fact that 9 of the 12 spilled a whopping 87 gallons. Imagine how that affected those millions of million of gallons of ground-water.

So, if the pipeline is already built as far as Oklahoma isn't the protest a tad late?

[Fnordpocalypse]

12:53 PM on 09/01/2011

yeah that 87 gallons could only contaminate 3.5 million gallons of water.



oh yeah, another oil spill reported today. 275,000 gallons.

when is it enough?

[blood1]

10:13 AM on 08/31/2011

Per Keystone: I am surprised we would have a problem this soon.

They expected problems with the pipeline - just not this soon!

That in and of itself should be sufficient reason to not authorize this adventure!

Proponent Corporations, yes even in Canada, are in it for the money and profits. Any water contamination problems is not a concern of theirs. They can be sued, pay a relatively small fine and profits will continue. Failing to understand this bigger picture makes you a fool!

[The last sane American]

07:39 AM on 09/01/2011

I expect your plumbing may leak at some time in your life.

Please immediately go to the inlet valve and turn off the supply.

Yes, that is how ridiculous your comment is!

[Fnordpocalypse]

02:14 PM on 09/01/2011

When my sink leaks, it doesnt have the potential to poison the water supply for a whole region of the country. This pipeline does have that potential.

[Dave Dettloff]

09:38 AM on 08/31/2011

Although I think the real issue is carbon emissions, this is a telling info graphic. 12 spills (9 of which are under 15 gallons!, happily surprised that these were even properly recorded, these may be trivial volumes if away from water systems) . Also, not eh Ogalala aquifer is recharged at the foot of the Rockies, it is exploited (tapped) be water wells in mid-west - it is under an aquiclude in Nebraska, by definition, impermeable. - Although any linear construction is damaging, as well as spills, focus on real issue, going after oil (and tar sands are dirty, expensive source of oil relatively) the easy stuff is already tapped, hence risky and expensive options on table.

[anderr35]

09:27 AM on 08/31/2011

It just never ceases to amaze me that people would hurt the economy, jobs and an opportunity to reduce our dependence on mid east oil so they could live in some hippy green dreamworld. It isn;t going to destroy anything, it's just hysteria.

[capnamerca]

09:46 AM on 08/31/2011

I think it's important to understand that one quart of oil can render 10,000 gals of water unfit for human consumption. And you insist that to have good clean drinking water is "living in some hippie dream world"?

[Bullitt08]

08:09 PM on 10/11/2011

Not true. And that one quart can cheaply and easily be removed.

[Fnordpocalypse]

12:46 PM on 08/31/2011

it never ceases to amze me that people would risk the most important natural resourse for anything, including jobs, or oil independence (which wont happen from this), all for just a few bucks in the hand of an oil company.

jobs wont mean anything when the fresh water is gone.

[The last sane American]

07:45 AM on 09/01/2011

Would you want to ask yourself

1) how many pipelines already criss-cross the country?
2) How many cities and counties in the country already have their water supply devastated by those pipelines?

Oh I know. This one is different.

[anderr35]

09:22 AM on 08/31/2011

Here we go, let's cut ourselves off from the 3rd largest oil reserves in the world and let China build;d a pipeline to the coast instead.

[capnamerca]

09:48 AM on 08/31/2011

Canadians are strongly against the pipeline to the west coast of Canada. Probably not going to happen. And, the Chinese have put a lot of their marbles on the Brazilian reserves.

[Kevin Rayburn]

11:35 PM on 08/31/2011

thats the evil reality that the protesters are forgetting....i dont believe for one minute that protesting is going to stop the tar sands mining, it is a matter of who ends up with the oil and how responsible that nation is enviromentally, china pretty much has already indicated their concerns about the enviroment (ZERO), would the world be better off if a nation that is less enviromentally responsible ends up with this oil? personally i do not think so, china would ship the tar stuff back to china in open barges reality folks china doesnt care.

[pat8942]

07:02 AM on 08/31/2011

This is only one biased side of the story.

[Fnordpocalypse]

05:30 PM on 08/31/2011

Dont worry the rest of the media will have the side of those poor underpriveleged oil companies and their lying scientists. Someone has to stick up for the little guy afterall.

[danglines]

02:28 AM on 08/31/2011

Keystone Pipeline Infographic: 'Built To Spill' .What a surprise!

[wsdave]

01:59 AM on 08/31/2011

Are the people guarding the pipeline the "Keystone Cops"?

[Spencer P Lane]

04:53 PM on 09/01/2011

Is this the place Keystone beer comes from?

[Genders]

12:14 AM on 08/31/2011

It's good for the economy if it leaks and destroy the aquifer, that way the big companies can sell you water.

Rooftop pv solar, offshore wind, waste bio char bio fuels can supply all the fuels and energy we need, in combination, 24/7, forever, carbon and land negative, safe clean and cheaper than oil sands, oil wars, nukes and coal.

But the fossil and nukes people have 100 times as much bribery money.

So you have to start voting for the candidates without the big money. Not the GOP, not the Tea, not the Obama DLC big money sellouts. They don't work for you.

Vote for the Locke liberal US founder types, the CPC Progressive caucus, Kucinch folks in the primaries and the dems in the general.
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/
Not the Obama Clinton Rahm Blue dog new dem DLC corporatist anti-populist folks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Leadership_Council

[DaveInWheaton]

09:36 AM on 08/31/2011

F&F

[RoyalOak]

04:21 PM on 08/30/2011

Tar sands pipeline spill in Michigan last year - want to see some results?
http://michiganmessenger.com/51128/the-enbridge-oil-spill-one-year-later

[Thinkingclearly]

07:27 PM on 08/30/2011

Thanks for the link -- people check this out!!

[girldog]

09:17 PM on 08/30/2011

From the link you provided:

For the first several days after the spill, authorities responding to the spill were working from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for generic oil. The oil company would not provide environmental workers with an MSDS for tar sands crude until several days after the spill. To top that off, Enbridge denied the oil was from the tar sands until Michigan Messenger pushed CEO Pat Daniels on the issue with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maps showing the oil was coming from the same bitumen deposits as the Alberta tar sands

But not to worry, the Keystone XL pipeline won't have a significant environmental impact....trust me and your friendly oil company.

[capnamerca]

09:52 AM on 08/31/2011

No significant impact on the environment?

http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1252&bih=600&q=Enbridge+oil+spill&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&oq=Enbridge+oil+spill&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=3336l3336l0l4932l1l1l0l0l0l0l1156l1156l7-1l1l0

[Julie McClure Campbell]

04:10 PM on 08/30/2011

Does anyone care to calculate the fuel savings of transporting the quantity of oil that would be delivered by the pipeline vs. transporting by tanker trunks/trains? I am all for being green, but pipelines are more environmentally friendly and controllable than off-shore drilling.

[Monk Monkey]

04:14 PM on 08/30/2011

And biking and public transportation is more environmentally friendly than either of those. We have options here, but we need to change our lifestyles. Otherwise, it's simply game over. Perhaps the Yanomamo will keep playing, but not the likes of us....

[she343]

04:28 PM on 08/30/2011

get your point but public trans. not available to all--and I am to old for biking up and down the hills to town. and we still need to deal with trucks delivering everything from food to meds. to electronics.......and farm use......and emergency vehicles etc.
but we can do better than THIS!

[anderr35]

09:23 AM on 08/31/2011

game over, how? Global warming? pff

[Monk Monkey]

04:22 PM on 08/30/2011

On another note, I truly hope you have a brother named Troy.

[KMBerger]

04:07 PM on 08/30/2011

The fact that there have been 12 reported spills thus far on the construction of this pipeline certainly suggests that shortcuts have been taken and environmental protection is NOT a foremost concern of those doing this construction. We should stop the construction in its entirety until another environmental assessment is conducted by non-political types (real scientists). Enough nonsense.

[girldog]

09:33 PM on 08/30/2011

I think we are talking about two different pipelines Keystone I, the purple line in the map, was built 12 months ago. It is the one that has had the 12 leaks that you mentioned. The Keystone XL pipeline, the red line in the map, is currently being debated.
Last Friday, the State Dept issued their environmental impact statement which was in favor of the pipeline. Final approval has to come from the president. That decision has not been made yet.

[KMBerger]

09:45 PM on 08/30/2011

I'm aware that there are two different pipelines, but the point is that the existing one has had 12 incidents. What is going to ensure that the new pipeline is going to be more robust than the existing one to prevent recurrences like what has happened? That is the key question not answered in public. There are no assurances that this new pipeline is any better or worse than the existing one, which should raise a red flag for anyone with an ounce of common sense.

[capnamerca]

09:56 AM on 08/31/2011

I do not believe the President has to approve this project. All it needs is the signature of the Secretary of State. It's the hope of the protestors that the President will step in and stop the project.

[Linus521]

04:01 PM on 08/30/2011

I am stunned by the ecological damage that this will do. They are discussing acres and acres of grassland and forested ecosystems that will be killed. When they discuss native land, they are speaking of the Earth's ecosystems, all the reasons man breathes and the veritable strands in the web of all life. The greatest destruction will be the acres of ecosystems killed for the construction of this nightmare.

Eco-literate scientists maintain, when man kills ecosystems, he is "suicidal".

[Skip Manley]

03:24 PM on 08/30/2011

most cars hold more than all but three of the twelve listed spills, 75% of the examples could have been from any car wreck. That 75% of the examples were so small but made to seem equal to the others shows a slant to this article. Could they have done a better job? Yes of course, but they need to be fair: more gas was spilled filling cars, boats, lawnmowers and such in one state than all but three examples.

Once an author slants the facts in such a way: all of their numbers become questionable, what else have they bent to their views?

[FDRbyGodDemocrat]

03:34 PM on 08/30/2011

I agree. The pipeline is a bad idea, but nine of the twelve spills cited are less than a third of a barrel, and one is ony two gallons.

[hornagain]

04:53 PM on 08/30/2011

PLUS 2 of the 12 listed are not even near the Keystone Pipeline! Numbers 7 and 8.

Of courses the masses believe the headlines, so why not lie?

[hornagain]

04:56 PM on 08/30/2011

And check out #5 Andover, South CAROLINA - LOL

[girldog]

10:31 PM on 08/30/2011

Cushing Oklahoma is home to the country’s biggest oil-trading hub. Here's an article about it but there is no mention of any kind of oil leak/spill.
http://gulfofmexicooilspillblog.com/2011/02/18/gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-blog-cushing-oklahoma-oil-glut/

I have no idea why Udall Kansas is listed.

Andover South Carolina is a mistake. That is South Dakota but I could not find that there was an oil spill in So Dakota in Jan 2011.

Huffpo editors must be on vacation.