Washington companies don't want to release info on oil and gas pipelines

[Ediacara]

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Claiming the release of detailed information on oil and gas pipelines could aid terrorists or troublemakers, Washington pipeline companies are appealing a judge's order that they disclose to the public specifics about their potentially explosive lines.

Meanwhile, the companies are asking the Legislature to change the Washington Public Records Act to allow the information to be kept secret -- while claiming in court that the law already shields the records from disclosure.

The pipeline companies' renewed efforts to keep the information secret followed Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks ruling Friday on their efforts to block disclosure.

"Over, and over again, they raise the specter of '9/11.' However, we need to have the courage to use that shocking lesson, and at the same time go on to live free and democratic lives," Hicks' ruling said. "Shall we refuse to publish ferry schedules because it would make it easier for insane terrorists to meet the boat at the dock and time an explosion?"

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/308162_pipeline20.html

[Purveyor]

1. Most of these pipelines were laid years, if not decades ago, and their wereabouts

is hardly any 'secret' for anyone willing to dig into the hardcopy archives of the local public library.

What a f'n joke.

[Ediacara]

2. That's true

But I think the real reason is that the companies want to avoid (very justified) nimby protests of pipelines, say, directly under schools (like Rose Hill Junior High in Kirkland).

[razors edge]

3. I could hit a 100,000 bbl gasoline storage tank

with a slingshot from the front door of a junior high school here in Toledo.

Our infrastructure was never designed to be safe from up close attacks, and never will be.

[Possumpoint]

4. In the mid 1970's

an improperly done weld failed on a cross country gas line in Faquire County, Virginia. The column of flame and smoke went over 20,000 feet into the air. When they got the gas turned off and the fire burnt itself out later they found the pipeling split open for more then a hundred feet. The pipe was carrying about 900 psiq at the time, not it's full winter time 1100 psig load. The only causality was one toasted cow.

Today, many houses and commercial buildings are built adjacent to the pipeline right of ways. This includes schools and day care centers. These pipelines are monitored and under cathodic protection but have been buried for many years. How long their lifetime is I don't know. Every time I go near those pipelines I think of that explosion years ago. You won't catch me living or working near them.

[sofa king]

5. I wonder if there's something else going on there.

Supply of natural gas has only just been keeping up with demand since... well, since criminals took over our government in 2001. Part of the argument the gas companies have offered for the limited supply is that the carrying capacity of the gas lines is near maximum.

I wonder if the pipeline companies are driving the price of natural gas up, and don't want anyone asking questions by comparing the details of what the lines can carry with details of what's actually being delivered?

I saw firsthand how the chemical companies are fighting their own little internecine corporate-Republican war against the oil companies because the chemical companies are getting jacked on the price of natural gas. The American Chemistry Council put a guy in charge whose primary qualification is that he's pals with Karl Rove; the oil guys of course own Dick Cheney and that other guy who thinks he's in charge.

[Tempest]

6. They don't want to release the information for one simple reason

The companies are not keeping up with required maintenance of the pipelines.

It was for that very reason one adult and two 10-year old boys in Bellingham, WA were killed in 1999 in a pipeline explosion.

[Tempest]

7. The oil companies are not performing required maintenance

That makes the pipelines extremely dangerous, as two 10-year old boys in Bellingham found out.

It's reasonable to ask for the locations of the pipelines in the name of public safety.