KAMLOOPS, B.C.—Officials say a spill from Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline two weeks ago was 48 times larger than initially reported.

The B.C. Ministry of Environment says the spill volume reported from the company’s Darfield station north of Kamloops on May 27 has been revised to 4,800 litres from 100 litres.

It says 100 litres is the minimum threshold under the company’s spill reporting obligations, so that’s why the ministry estimated 100 litres at the time.

Trans Mountain spokesperson Ali Hounsell says the company never provided an estimate of how much medium crude oil escaped, other than to confirm with regulators that it was over the reportable threshold.

“Trans Mountain had not provided an estimate of the volume spilled, other than to confirm with regulators that it was over the reportable threshold, until cleanup had sufficiently progressed to a stage where an accurate estimation could be provided,” she said in an email.

Following an onsite investigation, she says Trans Mountain has provided the updated volume estimate to regulators.

She says Trans Mountain is in the final stages of completing the cleanup.

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Under British Columbia's spill reporting regulation, Trans Mountain was required to report the spill immediately. The regulation says the quantity spilled should be among the information included in that report, “to the extent practical.”

The company turned off the pipeline for several hours the day of the spill, which the ministry said came from a leaking flow metre.

The spill was contained to the station property and no waterways were affected, the ministry said.

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Two days later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal government will spend $4.5 billion to buy the Trans Mountain expansion and Kinder Morgan Canada's core assets.

Kinder Morgan had ceased all non-essential spending on the Trans Mountain expansion in April, vowing to cancel it unless it received assurances it can proceed without delays and without undue risk to shareholders by a deadline of May 31.

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