The company reported the estimate to the National Response Center and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration which is equivalent to 400 barrels of oil, according to the Associated Press.
The company began excavating the site on Sunday in a field close the town of Freeman, South Dakota, by turning over topsoil. It said they exposed more than 100 feet of pipe, and the estimate comes from oil being observed in the soil, and the potential area affected.
There are about 100 workers at the site working around the clock to pinpoint the source of the leak in the pipeline. TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper reported the revised estimate Thursday morning.
We have exposed 100 ft. of pipe during excavation, 10-12 ft. deep, as we continue with our response efforts. pic.twitter.com/cuxyIyVJXJ
— TransCanada (@TransCanada) April 6, 2016
"The volume estimate reported this morning to the National Response Centre (NRC) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration (PHMSA) was based on the safe excavation of soil to expose more than 100 feet of pipe," Cooper wrote, according to the Angus Leader. "It takes into account a number of factors, including oil observed in the soil and the potential area impacted."
Elizabeth Lone Eagle, an official intervener for the state of South Dakota, however is worried about the spill's close proximity to the James and Missouri rivers and worried that the "groundwater contamination is heading to Yankton, Vermillion, Sioux City... all the way down," according to CommonDreams.
The leak is the fifth in the state for Keystone I, which was approved by the Public Utilities Commission in 2008. DENR's spill map shows three releases of petroleum in 2010 and one in 2011, one of which took place at the same pump station in 2010, when less than five gallons were released due to a fitting leak, according to the Argus Leader.
TransCanada's Keystone I pipeline carries light and heavy crude from Hardisty, Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma, while passing through the eastern Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. The Keystone I pipeline can handle 550,000 barrels, or about 23 million gallons, daily.
Ground petroleum is antiquated and unnecessary. It is a consumer monopoly designed for endless perpetuity and profit for a highly connected few. They will do anything to stop the following from becoming an option.
• We could work towards accurately educating the people who still believe the incorrect demonization propaganda from the 30's about cannabis instead of continuing the incoherent debates over one of the 421 compounds found in the plant. (THC) Since not one person has ever died from ingesting any form of cannabis in any way, it's beyond obvious that the establishment and their K-street connected monopolies are actively forcing people to focus on THC in hopes that it stays the main subject. Their actions indicate goals of placating the good folks who just want to get high, while ensuring that few people outside the loop will ever learn about how certain strains of it can produce 8,500 lbs. of seed per acre. (300 gallons of seed oil)
• We could use 194 million acres of existing subsidized & vacant lands to grow non-toxic hemp seed oil as a base material for a geographically diversified supply of liquid fuel. (Since most areas can produce two harvests per year; that could be around 144 billion gallons)
• We could then begin working toward converting the current fuel requirements away from gasoline and into biodiesel, thus utilizing existing technologies in vehicles such as the Diesel Honda Civic from Japan which gets 78 MPG or the 5 series BMW of Europe which gets 55 MPG. (This would also reduce the need for fracking operations)
• We could instantly use existing fuel infrastructure to move the biodiesel to where it needs to be.
• Millions of small farms would reap the benefit of their harvest at their local biodiesel producing operations.
• There would be no need for imported oil. (No tankers, no spills, no off shore drilling operations, no toxic oceanic pollution, no wars in the middle east)