220 'Significant' Pipeline Spills Already This Year Exposes Troubling Safety Record

[womanofthehills]

Three major U.S. pipeline spills within the last month are just a small part of the 220 significant incidents reported so far this year—and 3,032 since 2006—that provide a stark reminder of the environmental hazards of an aging pipeline infrastructure carrying fossil fuels. The costs of these leaks since 2006 has amounted to $4.7 billion.

1. Oklahoma: On Oct. 24, the 30-inch S-1 pipeline carrying crude oil from the critical Cushing, Oklahoma hub to refineries and chemical plants on the Gulf Coast began to leak and was shut down overnight. It was the second release connected with the Cushing storage facility in less than a month.

2. Pennsylvania: On Oct. 21, 55,000 gallons of gasoline gushed from a ruptured Sunoco Logistics pipeline in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, just upstream from the Susquehanna River. Carol Parenzan, Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper, said that witnesses who contacted her office reported that the "smell of petroleum is so thick you can taste it." The 80-year old pipeline was damaged by a heavy storm that dumped seven inches of rain on the area.

3. Alabama: Last month, the Colonial Pipeline in Alabama leaked an estimated 336,000 gallons of gasoline and triggered concerns about gas shortages for drivers in the East. That spill was Colonial's fifth in the state this year and occurred on a 43-year old section of the pipeline.

http://www.ecowatch.com/pipeline-spills-2061960029.html

[gratuitous]

1. "Troubling"

Yeah, "troubling," that's the word. As Charlie Pierce at Esquire notes ad infinitum, "Pipelines leak." Every one of them will spring a leak at some point. It's inevitable. What do the companies who install and own these pipelines do to detect and stop leaks? Something between zip-a-dee-doo-dah and diddly-squat.

[Mc Mike]

2. Still haven't cleaned up the Kalamazoo river or Mayflower, AK. rec, nt.