Does a CO2 pipeline leak in Mississippi hold lessons for Canada?
Alberta oil companies want to build a CO2 pipeline. But shipping the gas this way could carry risks
In the early evening of Feb. 22, 2020, DeBrae Burns was driving with his brother and cousin along Highway 3 outside the town of Satartia, Miss., when they saw a nearby explosion.
"We were coming back from a fishing trip, and we actually saw the mushroom cloud. Just like an explosion, but without the fire. It was just a big cloud of white in the air," he said.
He suspected it came from a nearby pipeline that runs through the hills above Satartia. What he didn't know was that instead of oil or natural gas, compressed and liquefied carbon dioxide was running through the pipes.
The surrounding area was immediately flooded with the suffocating gas, which can be deadly in concentrated amounts because it displaces oxygen. Burns called his mother on the phone about the explosion. Seconds later, the car's engine was snuffed out; Burns, his brother and cousin all passed out.
"My phone was still on. She was calling my name: DeBrae, DeBrae, DeBrae. And I just stopped talking."
Nobody died in the aftermath of that pipeline explosion in Mississippi, but first responders and residents say they should have known more about the risks to better prepare themselves for possible emergencies.
With major Canadian energy companies advocating for building a CO2 pipeline in Alberta, CBC went to Satartia to learn first-hand about the possible risks when a CO2 pipeline runs through a community.
Why a CO2 pipeline?
Carbon dioxide can be transported through a pipeline for multiple reasons. In the case of the pipeline in Mississippi, it's for a process called enhanced oil recovery, where pumping CO2 into oil wells can help extract more oil.
In Canada, a consortium of the country's largest energy companies called the Pathways Alliance is proposing a massive carbon dioxide pipeline that it says would reduce emissions from oilsands production in Alberta.
It would capture carbon dioxide emissions from more than 20 oilsands facilities in northern Alberta and transport them 400 kilometres away by pipeline to be stored in a naturally occurring underground reservoir in the Cold Lake area. The CO2 would then be kept underground, with the goal of preventing the emissions from entering the atmosphere.
The alliance first proposed the project in 2022 but has not yet finalized agreements with federal and provincial governments about incentives and how it would be paid for.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered part of the solution to reach net-zero emissions globally, according to the International Energy Agency, and is a key part of the oilsands companies' plans to cut emissions by a third from 2019 levels by 2030.
Critics, however, have likened CCS to a red herring in the climate fight.
A New York Times opinion column from 2022 called "every dollar" spent on CCS "a waste" as it enables continued gas and oil production by "masquerading as climate change solutions," instead of transitioning to cleaner energy sources.
Residents that live near where the proposed pipeline would be buried told The Narwhal last fall they had concerns about potential leaks or ruptures, how it might affect the water, farmland and Indigenous treaties.
What happened in Mississippi
Satartia, Miss., is a small village not far from the Mississippi Delta with about 50 residents, a main street, grocery store, a one-room town hall and a smattering of houses. One local said it's so flat on the delta, you can watch a dog run away for three days.
On the night of the explosion, some residents were outside having a crawfish boil. Hugh (Bubba) Martin, an army veteran who lives in Satartia, didn't hear the pipeline burst over the music and gas burners cooking the crawfish. But then he detected a smell like rotten eggs filling the air.
Soon enough, everyone was struggling to stay conscious.
"You were awake, but it wasn't nothing registering. Just disoriented. Your brain was not functioning. I mean, everybody tried to disperse. Everybody was passing out. The vehicles would not run," he said.
Local emergency services were soon flooded with 911 calls describing the smell of gas, people passing out and cars stalling out on the roads.
CO2 is odourless and colourless, but locals told CBC they believe the smell came from hydrogen sulfide, or sour gas, that may have been mixed in with the CO2.
Jack Willingham, emergency management director for Yazoo County where Satartia is located, said first responders didn't know what the problem was for at least the first 30 minutes. He said he wasn't even aware there was a CO2 pipeline running through his county.
"At that particular time [there] was not a lot of communication between us and the pipeline operator preparing us with what's going on," he said.
An eerie scene
Carbon dioxide isn't dangerous in low doses. Humans exhale it every time we take a breath. But at higher concentrations and in cool, cloudy weather, CO2 won't always disperse into the atmosphere. Instead, it will sit in an invisible cloud on the ground, displacing oxygen, making it harder or even impossible to breathe. It also suffocates internal combustion engines, meaning many vehicles won't run.
That made rescue operations in Satartia more difficult, as first responders struggled to keep their vehicles running. Some had to enter town on foot, wearing air masks and tanks to breathe.
Jerry Briggs, a firefighter and the EMS coordinator from neighbouring Warren County, said Satartia resembled a ghost town when his team arrived. Most residents had fled, but responders still had to look for anyone left behind.
"8:00 on Saturday night. Lights on; TVs on. Cars there; nobody [inside]. We found bonfires lit. Nobody around them," he said.
Driving along the highways looking for victims, Briggs and team found most stalled cars were empty. But one had three people in it: DeBrae Burns, his brother and cousin, all unconscious.
At first, Briggs thought they were dead, but soon realized they were still breathing. The firefighters' all-terrain utility vehicle was too small, so the team awkwardly piled the three unconscious men on top of their gear and spare air tanks in the back.
"In the south, we'd say we loaded them up like deer, you know, after deer hunting," Briggs said. "I know it sounds horrible, but in retrospect, they probably wouldn't have survived."
The firefighters drove them to safety, and the trio were then taken by paramedics to a hospital in nearby Vicksburg.
"When they found us, from what I understand, we were foaming at the mouth, barely breathing," Burns said. He recalled being told that if they had laid there five more minutes before being found, they wouldn't have survived.
Aftermath and questions
Forty-five people required medical attention at hospital and more than 200 people were evacuated from the Satartia area. Officially, everyone recovered. But while he can't prove the link, Burns believes he's living with after-effects of the exposure and the roughly three hours he believes he spent unconscious.
"I suffer from memory loss. You know, I have trouble focusing. I don't be around too many people. You know, I pretty much distance myself from a lot of things," he said.
Willingham says the explosion likely happened because some of the clay soil in Yazoo County "tends to shift more than normal dirt does in the area," and heavy rainfall that year made things even more unstable.
If it would have happened an hour or two hours later, this whole community would have been dead.- Hugh (Bubba) Martin
In its investigation into the explosion, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's findings suggested probable violations of federal safety regulations and proposed a hearing. Instead, Denbury, the pipeline's operator at the time, agreed to pay a fine of just under $3 million US.
ExxonMobil, which purchased Denbury in 2023, said it has "strengthened its infrastructure and elevated its standards to prevent future incidents," and is working "closely with local first responders to ensure a well coordinated response to any incident."
In a statement to CBC, Pathways Alliance said its proposed project would be built "in a stable corridor primarily following existing rights-of-ways, unlike the CO2 pipeline incident in Mississippi which was built in an area prone to landslides."
It also said it would have "a multi-layered safety system" that includes real-time pressure monitoring, seismic imaging and leak detection by both computer systems and human operators.
Willingham says the public should be made aware if a CO2 pipeline is installed in their area no matter where they live, so first responders have better information to save lives while also protecting their own.
"Have you ever, once in your life been taught what to do if there's a CO2 incident in your area? Why are we not educating our people on what to do?" he said.
"I'm not anti-pipeline, I'm not pro pipeline. I'm just pro public safety."
Martin says things could have been catastrophic if the explosions happened after people were already in bed.
"If it would have happened an hour or two hours later, this whole community would have been dead."
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