One north Hunt County family was evacuated in the early hours of Nov. 6 after an above-ground pumping station began spraying crude oil near their home.
County 911 dispatchers received a call about the leak at 11:39 p.m. on Nov. 5, according to Hunt County Emergency Management Coordinator Richard Hill. A Wolfe City Fire Department crew responded to the site near Farm-to-Market Road 118, just north of the intersection with County Road 4304, Hill said.
Firefighters arrived to find a 40-foot fountain of crude oil rising from the pumping unit, according to officials. A one-inch steel pipe connecting to a valve had failed, causing the leak, Hill said.
“It did affect the residents on the north side of the valving station – they evacuated,” Hill said. “We waited for the crews from Plains Pipeline who came out, who’ll be handling the cleanup and everything about that. They’re taking care of the displaced people, and we’re monitoring the situation,”
The above-ground pumping station serves an underground pipeline operated by Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. The pipeline moves crude oil from Cushing, Okla., to a station near Longview.
No underground leaking occurred, Hill said. No estimates of the total amount of oil spilled were available Wednesday afternoon. The event did not affect daytime traffic on FM 118 because the site is not adjacent to the road, he said.
