Crews have been working since September 9 to fix the leak that dumped roughly 336,000 gallons of gasoline and impacted gas prices throughout the southeast.
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Company officials working to fix a broken pipeline in Alabama that led to gas shortages across the South say they’ve successfully tested a temporary bypass and plan to restart the line soon.
Customers pull up and drive past the temporarily out of service gas pumps at a station in Alabaster, Ala., on Monday, Sept. 19, 2016, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued a state of emergency after a pipeline spill near Helena, .
The 500-foot bypass was needed to move fuel around the leak of its main gasoline pipeline in Shelby County, Alabama.
“Based on operational progress made overnight and the anticipated schedule of work ahead, Colonial Pipeline projects that Line 1 will be restarted this evening”, Colonial announced Wednesday.
The spill from the Colonial Pipeline was first detected September 9, and caused the governors of Alabama and Georgia to declare states of emergency amid fears that some pumps may run dry.
Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia were hit hardest by the partial closure of the pipeline.
When Line 1 restarts, it will take several days for the fuel delivery supply chain to return to normal.
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts. On Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.20, up from $2.17 one week earlier.
The pipeline at the source of a gasoline shortage in several Southeastern states including Tennessee has undergone a successful test run following repairs.
“I have determined that an “extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstance” exists that will prevent the distribution of an adequate supply of gasoline to consumers”, McCarthy wrote in a letter to the governors of those states and the mayor of the District of Columbia. The company also agreed to spend $30 million to upgrade environmental protections on its pipeline system. Prices varied across the area with prices in the Dalton city limits for regular unleaded at $2.19 at the Kroger Fuel Center and Kangaroo on Glenwood Avenue. That nationwide price climbed more than 2 cents just from Monday, by GasBuddy’s research. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory cheered the announcement at a news conference in Charlotte Tuesday morning. “This includes trucking and barging fuel from other markets and refineries”, the company said.
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The EPA said its water samples are consistent with the Colonial Pipeline Company water samples.
