Keystone Pipeline operator agrees to pay $26.9 million over 2022 oil spill

Source: Aol/CBS News/AP

July 12, 2026 / 3:11 PM EDT


The federal government has announced a settlement proposal that would require the owner and operator of the Keystone Pipeline to pay $26.9 million in civil penalties, linked to a major oil spill that dumped nearly half a million gallons of crude oil into a Kansas creek in December 2022.

The agreement would also require the company to spend an estimated $40 million to prevent future accidents, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Alongside the Department of Justice and the state of Kansas, the EPA accused pipeline's operator, Canada-based South Bow, of violating U.S. and state clean water laws. The proposed settlement would resolve those allegations.

The 2022 rupture dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek running through a rural pasture in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles northwest of Kansas City. The accident was the largest onshore crude pipeline spill in the U.S. in nine years and surpassed all 22 previous ones on the same pipeline system combined, according to a 2021 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The total amount of oil spilled would have nearly filled an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

South Bow also would pay Kansas more than $3 million for environmental restoration projects under a proposed decree filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Kansas. A judge would have to approve the proposal after a 30-day public comment period.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/keystone-pipeline-operator-agrees-pay-26-million-2022-oil-spill/