Colonial has diverted some gasoline onto another pipeline that normally carries diesel and jet fuel, and has said it is making deliveries to fuel terminals in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
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September 9- Colonial Pipeline officials discovered a leak in the pipeline in Helena, Alabama.
“Don’t ask me why, but Salisbury prices have gone up more than anywhere else in the state over the past week”, said Ragina Cooper Averella, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. This QuikTrip gas station in Duluth, Georgia, seen on Monday, Sept. 19, 2016, has run out of unleaded gasoline.
Drivers in Atlanta have found empty pumps, or are being forced to pay 20 cents more per gallon because gasoline must be trucked in from further away, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The spill also opened just up the Cahaba River from a national wildlife refuge that is home to 64 endangered or rare plant and animal species. Maryland’s average price reached $2.21, up four cents in the last week. That’s an increase of 13 cents from last week.
Although some pumps continue to run dry across the Cape Fear region and throughout the Southeast, officials were cautiously optimistic Tuesday with gas expected to start flowing through the patched Colonial Pipeline as early as Wednesday.
In a press release issued Tuesday morning, Colonial Pipeline said its completed a bypass for a problematic section of gas pipeline in the state of Alabama that has crimped fuel supplies throughout the southeastern United States for days.
The report does not identify the cause of the leak. The company said it has 700 employees and contractors working on the site. Other gas stations were limiting the amount of fuel each customer could purchase, and some had signs stating that they were out of regular.
A spokesperson for the company says that it will take a few days for the fuel supply chain to fully recover after the line restarts.
While Delaware’s average pump price has skyrocketed in comparison to its neighbors, the actual cost remains relatively low.
In the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area, the price of regular gas jumped 6 cents in one day, AAA reported.
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North Carolina has also been hit hard, with long lines and an emergency declaration from the governor.
