Olympic Pipeline, which fuels much of the Pacific Northwest has been shut down temporarily due to a leak discovered near Everett. This affects jet fuel delivery to SeaTac Airport as Thanksgiving "travel madness" looms in the near future. Workarounds, such as fuel delivery by truck, are being put in place. Our governor has declared a state of emergency to deal with this situation.
The pipeline also delivers most of the oil and gasoline used in the Northwest. It brings refined products, from the two oil refineries north of Bellingham and the two refineries near Anacortes, to consumers farther south. It goes from Whatcom County to Seattle and then on to Portland, Oregon serving a large population along the way.
From what I have gathered, in past years, some of the fuel used in Eastern Washington comes through Olympic as well as fuel travels by barge up the Columbia River from Portland to Tri Cities and then by truck to various distribution points from there.
In 1999, a leak in Bellingham caused a major fire along Whatcom Creek which killed three people. Great care must be taken in handling fossil fuels. I would guess that this 2025 leak was caught quite early.
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