"Pipeline Safety in the Congressional Spotlight"

"WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers are set to grill the nation's top pipeline regulator on Tuesday, as a Houston company works to clean up oil spills in California and Illinois that have highlighted safety concerns.

Plains All American Pipeline was still responding to both of those accidents Monday -- with workers scraping oil from cobblestones in California and deploying containment boom in Illinois to keep crude from entering a lake that supplies drinking water to area residents.

Although Plains said oil flows through the Pocahontas pump station on its 20-inch Capwood Pipeline in Illinois were halted within two minutes of an initial spill report Friday morning, some 4,200 gallons of oil had already been released. Some of that oil entered a nearby creek, but protective boom appeared to be keeping it out of Highland Silver Lake, about 40 miles northeast of St. Louis. "

Jennifer A. Dlouhy reports for the Houston Chronicle July 13, 2015.