Four Months After Spill, Alberta OKs Pipeline Reopening

Plains Midstream's Rainbow pipeline could soon be flowing once again, hopefully with fewer historic leaks this time.

Hey, remember that pipeline leak back in April that was Alberta's worst man-made environmental incident of the past 30 years? Well, it looks like the pipeline is set to reopen, with the Alberta government granting conditional approval for the Rainbow pipeline to resume flowing its smooth Alberta crude. All that Plains Midstream Canada, the company that owns and operates the pipeline, has to do now is complete a couple more things on a checklist (implement aerial patrols, clear the reopening with locals – who probably aren't too keen on that) before the Rainbow's back in business. It's almost as if the 28,000 barrels of oil that contaminated the First Nations community of Little Buffalo, Alta., never existed. As part of the relaunch, though, there will be much stricter oversight of the pipeline's condition and environmental impact, which is nice, but we hate to get all Captain Hindsight here and suggest maybe those should have been kicking around in the first place.