EVERETT — Officials from the Department of Ecology and oil giant British Petroleum are continuing to contain and assess a rupture from its Olympic Pipeline that spilled an undisclosed amount of jet fuel into a drainage ditch near Lowell-Snohomish River Road in Snohomish.
Olympic Pipeline is a 400-mile system of pipes that pumps jet fuel, diesel and gasoline from four refineries along Puget Sound to the Seattle area, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and further south to Vancouver and Portland.
The leak happened sometime last week near a blueberry farm, but the oil giant was alerted to the leak on Nov. 11, according to a press release Tuesday.
Governor Bob Ferguson issued an emergency proclamation on Wednesday, temporarily waiving state regulations limiting the number of hours commercial motor vehicle operators can drive when transporting jet fuel. The suspension will assist in SeaTac airport operations while repairs are underway.
As of Friday morning, SeaTac has not been affected, airport spokesperson Perry Cooper said.
“We are not currently experiencing any disruption to our operation at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport,” an unnamed Alaska Airlines spokesperson said in a Friday email. “To ensure our scheduled service is maintained without significant disruption, we are preparing contingency plans, which include fuel management strategies such as tankering in fuel on inbound flights to Seattle, assessing tech stop options along certain routes to conserve fuel, and maintaining and expanding our trucking operation to bring in additional fuel supply.”
As of Thursday afternoon, BP has not observed any product outside of the response area.
At the site of the leak, the system consists of two parallel pipes, one of which is 16 inches wide and one that is 20 inches wide.
Both pipes were temporarily shut off to identify the source of the leak, which was traced to the larger of the two pipes. The smaller pipe resumed operation on Saturday, but on Monday afternoon, BP shut down the system, an email from BP spokesperson Cesar Rodriguez said on Wednesday.
The company has begun 24-hour excavation operations, removing pipes for visual inspection. The oil company does not currently have a timeline for restarting the pipes.
The Washington Department of Ecology is assisting in cleanup efforts and has deployed responders to contain the fuel and remove contaminated soils.
In 2023, the Olympic Pipeline leaked into a ditch and creek south of Mount Vernon, causing a nearby elementary school to close. The pipeline also leaked in 2014 near Burlington, where a reported 60 gallons of mixed fuel spilled.
In 1999, the pipeline exploded in Whatcom Falls Park in Bellingham, killing three people.
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson.
Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.
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