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A section of the Platte Pipeline operated by Kinder Morgan (KM) ruptured at approximately 1615 hours on September 6, 2007, in rural Montgomery County, Missouri. The rupture occurred approximately 1/2 mile north of the County Road 77 and State Route CC intersection, approximately 5 miles north northeast of Bellflower, Missouri. The discharge was identified by pipeline managers who remotely detected an unexpected pressure drop in the 20-inch line. Local residents also reported a strong odor that the off-gassing crude produced.
Approximately 4,769 barrels of 30-50 API grade sweet "Platte" crude oil was released into a small pond about one acre in size. Crude oil sprayed on trees near the discharge, accumulated on the pond to depths of 12 to 24 inches, and slicked adjacent shore lines.
County officials evacuated local residents during the night of September 6 until the site was assessed. Evacuees were allowed to return the following day; however, approximately 1/2 mile around the site was designated as an exclusion and ingress/egress was controlled.
The discharge threatened the Long Branch of the Elkhorn Creek, which is approximately 300 feet from the pond. Long Branch empties into Elkhorn Creek approximately 1.2 miles from the spill and empties into the West Fork of the Cuivre River approximately 3 miles downstream of its confluence with Long Branch.
By September 7, 2007, KM mobilized resources to the site and were conducting cleanup operations. KM removed oil from the pond via vacuum trucks and hauled it to portable storage containers (fractionation or "frac" tanks) being set up at an offsite staging area. KM transported these containers via transport truck to pipeline breakout tankage in Salisbury, Missouri.
On-Scene Coordinators Heath Smith and Jim Silver responded to the spill to evaluate threats to federal jurisdictional waters and to evaluate the response and resource commitment provided by KM.
As of September 18, 2007, KM had removed all significant deposits of crude oil from the surface of the site and repaired the pipeline.
As of November 5, 2007, trenches remained open that had been excavated near the spill area. KM constructed the trenches to collect sub-surface contamination.
A measurable amount of crude oil continues to surface on the pond. EPA observed on November 5 that some amount of un-recovered sub-surface oil was still present. KM was in the process of de-watering the pond to inspect and remedy any impacts and address any source areas at that time.
On December 12, 2007, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources verified they would not be attempting to recover costs from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. Their oversight costs amounting to $8,863 would be recovered from KM directly.
KM continues cleanup efforts as overseen by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Voluntary Clean-up Program.
No further action is planned by the U.S. EPA.
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