North Dakota pipeline spill raises questions amid state's oil boom

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-oil-spill-20131023,0,6531493.story#axzz2iddASGA6

North Dakota pipeline spill raises questions amid state's oil boom
Tesoro Logistics and North Dakota didn't quickly tell the public about an oil pipeline spill, and the firm doesn't know when it started.
By Neela Banerjee
October 23, 2013, 10:01 p.m.

WASHINGTON — About sundown one Sunday in September, North Dakota farmer Steven Jensen noticed that his combine was running over wet, squishy earth in a wheat field he was harvesting. When he took a closer look, he saw that oil had coated the wheels and that it was bubbling up about 6 inches high in spots.

That was Sept. 29; Jensen contacted authorities immediately. At least 20,600 barrels of oil leaked onto the Jensens' land from a pipeline owned by Tesoro Logistics, one of the largest land-based spills in recent history. Neither the pipeline company nor the state informed the public of the spill for 11 days.

Since then, why there was a delay in disclosure has proved to be one of several fundamental questions that Tesoro and state authorities have yet to answer. No one knows how long the pipeline was leaking before Jensen discovered it, nor why sensors on the pipe failed to detect the leak. Neither the state nor the company could say what the pipeline's capacity was. Experts on pipeline spills question the accuracy of Tesoro's leak estimate, disputing its methodology.

Jensen estimates that more than 20 acres have been affected by the spill and cleanup effort. He says Tesoro appears to be working hard to contain the spill, but he worries that it could seep into groundwater.... MORE

[madokie]

1. Seems that for profit corporations can't be trusted to be honest

Thats why we need oversight to begin with.
This tar sands oil they're wanting to pipe through our country for profit companies is not a good thing going forward. I know from working with systems that transport sand via pipe that it is very abrasive and will wear the pipes out especially down stream of any turn or bend in the pipe. I can't imagine they can remove all the sand from the oil so there is no way that the Keystone XL pipeline wouldn't be a colossal fuck up.

[theHandpuppet]

2. Totally agree

If we haven't learned anything about "transparency" from past and even ongoing disasters, why in the world would anyone simply trust that petroleum companies can be trusted with regards to this pipeline?