Olympic pipeline leak source identified; repair plan in development
Crews developing repair plan for leak in Olympic pipeline
Crews near Everett found the source of a leak in the Olympic pipeline that supplies jet fuel to Sea-Tac Airport.
EVERETT, Wash. - Crews have identified the source of the leak in the Olympic Pipeline, which supplies jet fuel to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA Airport), near Everett, and are now developing a repair plan.
During testing Monday, the leak was confirmed in the 20-inch pipeline segment, which supplies more than 90% of Oregon’s fuel and jet fuel to SEA Airport. There was no indication of a leak in the adjacent 16-inch line.
The Olympic Pipeline, which runs 400 miles from Whatcom County, Washington, to Portland, Oregon, is operated by BP Pipelines North America, Inc.
Crews are working in coordination with federal, state, tribal and local authorities and plan to release an updated pipeline restart timeline as soon as it is available.
Regional impact and response
Local perspective:
The pipeline shutdown comes just as the busy holiday travel season begins, forcing some airlines to divert flights due to fueling issues at Sea-Tac.
The threat of a widespread fuel shortage prompted emergency declarations in two states.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson issued an emergency declaration last week, and Oregon’s governor followed suit Monday night. The Oregon order allows truck drivers to legally drive longer routes to bring in replacement fuel via tanker trucks.
The backstory:
The release of refined products was first reported after a sheen was discovered in a drainage ditch in an agricultural field on Tuesday, Nov. 11. Responders have since deployed boom and oil recovery equipment to contain the product, and officials said no fuel has been observed outside of the immediate response area. The total amount of released product is still being assessed.
The incident is the third for the pipeline in the last five years. In a separate incident, the State Department of Ecology recently fined BP Pipelines nearly $4 million for a 2023 leak near Conway that dumped 21,000 gallons of gasoline into the water.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story erroneously reported that the 2023 Conway leak dumped 25 million gallons of gasoline into the water. This number has been corrected to 21,000 gallons.
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The Source: Information in this story came from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, BP, Department of Ecology original reporting and interviews by FOX 13 Seattle.