Giliell@#1: What about the oil that is still in the pipeline?
It depends what’s in there. Most pipelines carry varieties of stuff (you just put gas, then crude, then whatever -- they don’t mix in transit) So if it breaks while it’s on kerosene then you have a really insane mess.
3 minutes to shutdown a pipe from alert is “only” 40,000 gallons.
One issue is that the monitoring systems can’t detect small leaks, they only detect sudden drops. I believe it takes longer to detect small leaks. And in those quantities “small” probably means a gallon or two hundred here or there.
rqsays
I bet most small leaks don’t go noticed at all, since the drop is so insignificant and regular that it makes no overall difference (i.e. not enough to trigger the signal). Holy shit but that’s a lot of nafta product.
Crimson Clupeidaesays
So under the absolute best conditions (leak immediately detected and reported), it would ‘only’ spill about 40,000 gallons of crude?
Yeah, run that fucker right through the middle of a big city full of white people (make sure it crosses a few of the more affluent, gated communites). Let’s at least make the consequences fall on those who benefit most from the risks.
It will be worse than that. The plan is to put in an automated warning system, remotely manned. That means no one will actually be employed to keep an eye on anything. By the time a leak could be responded to, it would be worse than anticipated.
Oh yes, there’s supposed to be an automated shut down, too, but these things have failed all over the place.
1. How long from the actual leak until the report?
2. What does “shut down” mean? What about the oil that is still in the pipeline?
Giliell@#1:
What about the oil that is still in the pipeline?
It depends what’s in there. Most pipelines carry varieties of stuff (you just put gas, then crude, then whatever -- they don’t mix in transit) So if it breaks while it’s on kerosene then you have a really insane mess.
3 minutes to shutdown a pipe from alert is “only” 40,000 gallons.
One issue is that the monitoring systems can’t detect small leaks, they only detect sudden drops. I believe it takes longer to detect small leaks. And in those quantities “small” probably means a gallon or two hundred here or there.
I bet most small leaks don’t go noticed at all, since the drop is so insignificant and regular that it makes no overall difference (i.e. not enough to trigger the signal). Holy shit but that’s a lot of nafta product.
So under the absolute best conditions (leak immediately detected and reported), it would ‘only’ spill about 40,000 gallons of crude?
Yeah, run that fucker right through the middle of a big city full of white people (make sure it crosses a few of the more affluent, gated communites). Let’s at least make the consequences fall on those who benefit most from the risks.
It will be worse than that. The plan is to put in an automated warning system, remotely manned. That means no one will actually be employed to keep an eye on anything. By the time a leak could be responded to, it would be worse than anticipated.
Oh yes, there’s supposed to be an automated shut down, too, but these things have failed all over the place.