Late in the evening of 3/13/2020, Kinder Morgan (KM) discovered a pressure drop on it's 8" refined products pipeline in a hilly area near the unincorporated area of Bethany, a western suburb of Portland, Oregon. KM immediately shut down and blocked in the pipeline, then began an investigation and instituted a pressure test on the pipeline. Shortly before midnight KM determined that the pipeline had a likely spill. Shortly after 4:00 AM on 3/14/2020, KM did find evidence of a leak at Milepost 14 of the pipeline, and immediately mobilized response crews to the site.
After EPA and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) were notified of the spill, both agencies mobilized Federal and State On-Scene Coordinators to the site to begin an investigation and enter into Unified Command with Kinder Morgan.
