Major oil spill in rural Kansas creek shuts down Keystone pipeline

An oil spill in a creek in northeastern Kansas shut down a major pipeline that carries oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, briefly causing oil prices to rise Thursday. It is the largest for an onshore crude pipeline in more than nine years and by far the biggest in the history of the Keystone pipeline, according to federal data. Canada-based TC Energy said it shut down its Keystone system Wednesday night following a drop in pipeline pressure. It said oil spilled into a creek in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City. The company on Thursday estimated the spill's size at about 14,000 barrels, or 588,000 gallons, and said the affected pipeline segment had been "isolated" and the oil contained at the site with booms, or barriers. It did not say how the spill occurred. "People are sometimes not aware of the havoc that these things can wreak until the disaster happens," said Zack Pistora, who lobbies the Kansas Legislature for the Sierra Cl