Emergency UPDATE: 6 States Facing Possible Gas Shortages After Colonial Pipeline Spill
TOM LIDDY & David Caplan
Six states -- Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and
North Carolina -- are facing possible gas shortages after a pipeline
spill, officials said.
The states have all declared states of emergency, citing concerns about
"fuel supply disruptions" and "disruptions of gasoline" in the wake of
the Colonial Pipeline spill.
The governor of North Carolina declared the state of emergency to "help
ensure that there will be adequate supplies of fuel across the state and
prevent excessive fuel pricing."
Prices on futures contracts for wholesale gasoline rose about 2 percent
Friday to $1.46 a gallon after rising 5 percent on Thursday.
Long lines have quickly amassed at gas stations in the six states, and
social media users took to their accounts to document the chaos and
dwindling gasoline supply, in some cases. Below, images from Tennessee.
On Sept. 9, gasoline was discharged from an underground 36-inch pipeline
near Birmingham, Ala. and leaked into a nearby pond. The pipeline was
shut down after the discovery of the leak.
Approximately 230,000 of gasoline and water have been recovered as of
Friday afternoon, but the presence of explosive vapors is making the
cleanup difficult.
"Recovery efforts are continuing 24 hours a day focusing on remediation
of contamination and restoration of pipeline services," the EPA said in a
statement.
Colonial Pipeline said Friday it doesn't expect to fully reopen its primary gasoline pipeline until next week.
It is one of two major pipelines that connect more than two dozen
refineries in Texas and Louisiana with cities in the Eastern U.S. The
pipeline provides nearly 40 percent of the region's gasoline and usually
runs at or near full capacity.
