Crude leak plugged in Alaska Pipeline(after corroded pipe loses 20000 gal.

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-spill9mar09,0,6591927.story?track=tottext

From the Los Angeles Times
Crude Leak Plugged in Alaska Pipeline
Fiercely cold conditions are hampering efforts to clean up the oil spill from a corroded pipe.
By Sam Howe Verhovek
Times Staff Writer

March 9, 2006

SEATTLE — At least 20,000 gallons of crude oil have spilled from a corroded pipeline near Prudhoe Bay in northern Alaska, state officials said Wednesday, adding that cleanup crews were hampered by severe conditions such as wind-chill temperatures of 50 degrees below zero.

The leak has been plugged, and cleanup crews with giant vacuum trucks known as "super suckers" have been deployed to gather the spilled oil, said Lynda S. Giguere, a spokeswoman for Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation.

The quarter-inch hole in the 34-inch-wide pipeline, about 650 miles north of Anchorage, was detected last Thursday.

It is at a point in the line covered by a mound of gravel designed to let caribou cross the pipeline.<snip>

[MadMaddie]

1. Boy the deregulation of oil companies...and self monitoring

is great isn't....the companies are so reponible that they monitor their rusty pipes before they leak....:sarcasm:

[Felix Mala]

2. President assures us elk will lap up spilled oil -- they love it...

[TX-RAT]

5. Cows do it on my place.

Doesn't seem to bother them much if any. Only cows i've lost were from H2S leaks. Damn cows try to eat everything they can that petroleum based, plastic flow lines, pipe caps, pump jack belts, they'll even eat the insulation off of every wire they can reach.

[xchrom]

3. another example of just how good oil companies take

care of our environment.

with the kind of profits they've been making -- doesn't that amplify the negligence?

[tinymontgomery]

4. Quick raise the price!

It's a going to create a shortage in the lowere 48!!!

[truthisfreedom]

6. what this is, really, is an example of just how fragile pipelines are.

our entire infrastructure is built on them.

if we had localized power, with wind generators and solar on our roofs, we wouldn't be dependent on pipelines.

pipelines literally scream out for terrorist attack. pipelines fall apart unexpectedly. they develop holes.

if one solar panel fails on one house rooftop, only one house suffers.

[TX-RAT]

8. What do pipelines have to do with our using electricity?

How many electricity provider use oil to produce their electricity?

[Solon]

11. Not all pipes carry crude, we use Natural Gas for electrical generation...

Think of what happened in Denver recently with rolling blackouts because of a Natrual Gas Shortage in the area.

[SOS]

7. But they promise

not to spill a lake of oil into ANWR.

:(

[OKthatsIT]

9. LIARS...650,000 Gallons were spilled!!!!

It's the second largest spill in Alaskan history.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11696601

[DavidDvorkin]

10. No one could have foreseen this!

Except for all those environmentalists who warned of exactly this, back when the discussion about building oil pipelines in Alaska was raging.

[anotherdrew]

12. let me get this straight... they just let the pipe RUST through? great...

so this could happen again tomorrow on another pipe.... I guess they just couldn't waste money on checking their plant, my god, this is pathetic.


Also, great under-reporting and minimization job on the amount spilled. How helpful...