Alaska's current oil spill biggest ever

[donsu]

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/5694.html


Largest oil spill detected in Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska

An oil spill at the Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska has turned out to be the biggest ever in the region, according to official estimates. Around 267,000 gallons (one million litres) of crude leaked out from a corroded transit pipeline near the northern tip of the state. This was detected on March 2 and was immediately plugged, but the spill could wreck havoc on the delicate environmental balance in the region.

The report on the spill prepared by Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation said that this was the worst disaster in the history of Trans-Alaska Pipeline system. "I can confirm it's the largest spill of crude oil on the North Slope that we have record of," said Linda Giguere of the department.

-snip-

A quarter-inch hole in the pipeline was responsible for the leak and as mentioned is thought to have been caused by corrosion. This plant handles around 100,000 barrels of oil daily and till the situation comes under control, an alternate pipeline is being used to drill about 5,000 barrels a day. This spill once again shifts the focus on President Bush's desire to drill for oil very near to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Environmentalists say this would spell disaster for the ecosystem in the area. Officials have also confirmed that another leak has been discovered, this time in a site belonging to ConocoPhillips. The volume of the leak has not yet been disclosed.
---------------------------------


a quarter-inch hole bringing death and destruction to life in that area

shit

[MadMaddie]

1. Why are we not seeing this on the major news outlets?

The * cabal is suppressing this spill.....

[babylonsister]

2. My thoughts exactly; why is this story being hidden? nt

[Coexist]

6. because they want to drill there. n/t

[Tesha]

9. It would hurt their plans for ANWR. (NT)

[NoAmericanTaliban]

3. So much for the 'safe' oil drilling propaganda....

that is used to try to sell the opening of more oil drilling in Alaska. Their agument for oil drilling is based based on the selling point that the technology is safe now & wouldn't hurt the environment. This recent oil spill blows a big hole in that selling point. Probably why it's not mentioned in the news a lot, but it should be headline news in my opinion.

[gristy]

4. You might want to edit your headline.

It's the biggest spill in the region of the Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska, not the biggest spill in Alaska.

[hatrack]

5. Approximately 6,300 barrels - about 1/7th of an Exxon Valdez

With Earth Day only about a month away, look for a specially rich flourishing of greenwash in the nation's newspapers and on the airwaves.

Something tells me we'll be hearing a great deal about "environmentally responsible development" and "stewardship".

:puke:

[dogday]

7. It only makes good press when a drunk Captain

is responsible I guess....

[klook]

8. 200k+ gallons - CBS News web site

The CBS News web site has some info about this. They say the spill is "only" between 201,000 and 267,000 gallons, much smaller than the 11 million gallons spilled when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989.

The source of the spill was a quarter-inch hole apparently caused by corrosion inside the three-mile line that leads to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

Sheesh! How long does it take for 200,000 gallons of oil to leak out of a quarter-inch hole??? Isn't anybody paying attention up there?

[Rainscents]

13. NW-News channels are reporting this spill.

It's NOT good! You can bet, oil company is going to get away with this shit (as always) and let the tax-payers flip the bills for the clean up.:banghead:

[hootinholler]

19. How long does it take for 200,000 gallons of oil to leak out of a quarter-

Depends on the pressure and viscosity.

-Hoot

[klook]

20. OK, makes sense -- but

wouldn't it at least be a matter of hours? Especially at very low temperatures such as were present at the time and location of this leak (wind chill of 70 below zero at Prudhoe Bay when the leak occurred). At this temperature, I can't imagine that much oil could flow through a quarter-inch opening in minutes, even if the oil is low viscosity and under high pressure.

However, I'm not an engineer or a petroleum expert, so I'm just conjecturing.

[hootinholler]

22. I find it funny that they lost a days production through this little hole.

An the first estimates were on the order of 25000 Gallons! The difference between my losing $25 and $250.

My point, not well expressed, is that it's calculatable. We can figure it out how long it took to seal it, if we know the pressure the line operates at. Also crude is highly viscous, like molasses.

-Hoot

[klook]

23. OK, we're on the same page.

Lots of thick oil lost through a little bitty hole. I'm also interested in knowing how long from the time the leak was discovered until it was plugged. I can imagine it ain't easy, but anybody in the oil biz should be required to have measures in place that would stop this magnitude of a leak from this small of a hole.

Oh, but that would require government regulation and penalties with teeth. Sorry, what was I thinking? :eyes:

[lonestarnot]

10. black dripping death!

[Nutmegger]

11. Damn the "liberal media"!!!

:sarcasm:

[jsamuel]

12. "corrosion"?! That is the worst reason! So basically, NEGLECT!

[Berserker]

14. I would venture to say

that if corrosion caused this leak there is more than one 1/4 inch spot to worry about.

[mom cat]

17. I am sure that the quarter inch hole is just the beginning of the

corrosion problems. The pipeline shoukd be immediately shut down and inspected, repaired or shut down. This spill is already a disaster and now there is a new hole. It should be shut down before there is any more irreversable damage.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

15. How many even know of the 3 million gallons in the Gulf on Nov. 11?

Hardly heard a peep about that either. They were more concerned with getting the oil flowing again than mentioning the results of rushing the tankers back in.

We're killing our world at an alarming rate.


edit to add link:

A double-hulled tanker barge now drained and floating upside down at a dock off Mobile Bay was responsible for what appears to be one of the Gulf of Mexico's largest oil spills, which received scant attention when it occurred in the early morning of Nov. 11. A gash in the hull 35 feet long and 6 feet wide released up to 3 million gallons of oil off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas.

Federal officials said the 442-foot ship's hull ruptured and spilled the oil after it collided with a submerged oil platform wrecked by Hurricane Rita in September. Federal records show at least 167 Gulf platforms were damaged or destroyed during the 2005 hurricane season. Many are submerged or so damaged that the warning beacons on them no longer work, and federal officials say they have no idea how many have working marker lights.

At least two more vessels have collided with submerged platforms since the Nov. 11 incident, federal records show.

Coast Guard officials said the spill, and the $35 million cleanup associated with it, might have been avoided if the owners of the oil platform had marked the submerged wreck with a lighted buoy, as required by federal law. But the wreck was marked only with floating plastic balls described as "cherry fenders." Such buoys are not lighted and would be difficult to see at midnight, about when the accident happened.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1137826855222050.xml

[leftofthedial]

16. The only coverage of this I have seen anywhere has been here on DU

in linked articles

NOTHING at all from the corporate propaganda channels

[raccoon]

18. And the Exxon Valdez spill happened in March 1989

"On March 24, 1989, shortly after midnight, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck ... "
www.epa.gov/oilspill/exxon.htm

17 years ago. My, how times have changed.

[donkeyotay]

21. That's why this story is being censored

"This spill once again shifts the focus on President Bush's desire to drill for oil very near to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

Another GOP policy from the CEO Disaster Monkey having a brutal encounter with reality. Geez, people will start to talk.'

[Xithras]

24. Because as oil spills go, this one was minor.

It happened on land, so the oil stayed right alongside the pipeline. It also happened in the middle of the winter, so the oil quickly cooled and became viscous...keeping it from running off. While this WAS a lot of oil, the actual damage was confined to a tiny area. Unlike tanker disasters where hundreds of miles of shoreline are polluted, this basically only affects animals immediately adjacent to that particular stretch of the pipeline. Cleanup should also be fairly simple.

Also, remember that before we started drilling, there were naturally occurring pools of oil and tar on the ground in the north slope where some of it seeped to the surface. From an environmental perspective, this isn't particularly unusual or damaging.

[TX-RAT]

25. Yep, not much of a spill

We have spills around here all the time, (Permian Basin) the oil cleans up just fine. It's the saltwater that does the long term damage, it will kill the soil for 20 to 30 years. Theres a salt scald down by Texon TX, thats had the soil killed for over 50 years. We had a small oil spill on my place last year ( 430 barrels ), thats already starting to green up.

[Solon]

26. Different enviromental implication...

I assume that much of this pipeline is built upon quickly thawing permafrost, I imagine that the aging pipline cannot handle the stress of sinking into the soil, so could this be a prelude to a larger disaster just around the corner?

[TX-RAT]

27. Could be, pipelines need maintenance just like everything else.

Most of the leaks on my place are due to old pipelines, tanks, or well heads.

[Solon]

28. Yeah, I doubt the supports are all the way down to bedrock...

Buts its hundreds of miles of pipeline to begin with, and maintaining it is going to be even harder when permafrost thaws, which is what it has been doing lately. I would imagine that even in a gradual thawing will lead to more breaks in the pipes, and also will slow down the reaction times of maintenance workers. Imagine the muck they would have to have their vehicles go through, especially when the roads themselves sink into the mud.