Ottawa ? Conoco Inc. officials say a faulty seam in an 8-inch fuel pipeline is to blame for an 84,000-gallon gasoline spill that led to evacuation of three homes Wednesday southwest of Ottawa.

The leak in the pipeline, which carries about 3.57 million gallons of gasoline daily between a refinery in El Dorado and distribution points in the Kansas City area, was reported at 9:24 a.m. Wednesday, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office said.

By Wednesday afternoon, crews from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Conoco had recovered about 8,400 gallons of the spilled fuel, which accumulated in ditches along Eisenhower and Labette roads, said KDHE spokesman Mike Heideman.

“There hasn’t been any impact to any public water supplies, and any supplies that are downstream of the spill have been notified in case the spill somehow does make it into service water,” Heideman said, adding that the nearest stream, the Marais des Cygnes River, is three miles away from the spill.

Heideman estimated the cleanup would take from 24 to 48 hours. Meanwhile, Conoco has provided hotel rooms for residents evacuated from their homes.

Kenneth Ray, director of external affairs and communications for Conoco’s Ponca City, Okla.-based refinery, on Wednesday was in Ottawa with about a dozen company employees helping with the cleanup. He said that Conoco had acquired the line a few years ago and that he didn’t know how old it was.

“We think it was some failure in the line itself,” he said. “Age would not necessarily be the cause of that.”

He said the pipeline had been shut down and depressurized so gasoline would not continue to flow to the leak. He expected repairs to be complete by today.

Though the high-volume supply line was expected to be out of service for more than 24 hours, Ray said Conoco had made arrangements to provide product to the market and didn’t expect any interruptions in delivery.

“Our primary concern is to make sure everyone’s safe and to get the area cleaned up,” he said.