BP finds leak in major Pacific Northwest pipeline, resumes delivering fuel to Seattle-Tacoma airport

SEATTLE (AP) — Oil company BP has found the source of a leak in a major Pacific Northwest pipeline system, allowing it to restart the flow of jet fuel to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Tuesday and help avoid any major disruptions to Thanksgiving travel.

Separately, Washington state regulators announced they were fining the company $3.8 million for a 2023 spill from the same pipeline system nearby.

The 400-mile-long (644-kilometer-long) Olympic Pipeline is the backbone of the region’s system for moving gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products from refineries near the Canadian border to distribution terminals in the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascades, including major cities in Washington and Oregon.

BP shut the pipeline system down on Nov. 17 following intermittent shutoffs after a farmer discovered a gas sheen in a drainage ditch on a blueberry farm near Everett, north of Seattle, on Nov. 11. That prompted Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson to declare an emergency last week, lifting restrictions on how long truck drivers could work to enable them to deliver fuel to Sea-Tac by road. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek issued a similar order Monday.

But late Monday, after excavating in an area where two pipes run alongside each other — one that carries gasoline and another that carries jet fuel — BP said it found the leak in the gasoline pipeline. That allowed it to restart the flow of fuel to the airport and to begin devising a repair plan for the gas pipeline.

Officials and BP are still assessing how much gasoline leaked. Responders have set out recovery equipment to contain and clean up the spill, and no gasoline has been observed outside the area of the response, BP said.

“It will take a couple of days to replenish fuel reserves at the airport, but early indications suggest that travel will not be impacted,” Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell said in a statement. “This is why we need strong pipeline safety oversight and better leak detection technology.”

In a letter to BP last week, Cantwell said the fact that the company didn’t notice the leak before the blueberry farmer did raised serious questions about its inspection, maintenance and leak-detection capabilities.

Delta and Alaska Airlines, which had added fuel stops to some flights, said Tuesday they were resuming normal operations while continuing to truck in some fuel until the airport’s reserves are replenished.

Previous shutdowns of the pipeline have prompted gas prices to spike in Washington and Oregon.

The pipeline has a lengthy history of leaks, including a 1999 fireball that killed three young people recreating along a creek in Bellingham, Washington. The accident led to an overhaul of federal pipeline regulation.

In 2023, a 25,000-gallon (95,000-liter) spill near Conway, north of Seattle, sent fuel into nearby streams and wetlands.

The state Ecology Department on Monday announced that the cause of that leak was a corroded carbon-steel nut on an assembly used to monitor the pipeline’s pressure. The company’s inspections failed to identify the nut as a problem, though it shouldn’t have been used due to the likelihood of corrosion, the department said.

The department said it was seeking more than $4.6 million from BP for that spill — $3.8 million in fines plus $822,000 in response costs.

The company, which has until Dec. 18 to appeal, said it is reviewing the department’s findings.

“As noted by the Washington Department of Ecology, our collaborative, robust response with our partners limited the affected area, reduced environmental impacts and prioritized public health,” BP said in a statement.