Sunday, April 1, 2018

Top 20 oil spills from pipelines since 2010


 In July 2010, a pipeline carrying tar sands oil burst in Marshall, Mich., inundating 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River with heavy crude. Enbridge and the EPA both confirm that it has taken far longer to clean up the oil than expected. (partly because diluted bitumen is heavier than water and sinks) Early on, the EPA gave the company a couple of months. Two years and $800 million later, the cleanup is still going on. The cost eclipses every other onshore oil cleanup in U.S. history!

might have once been a favorite picnic site ...
The Canadian pipeline company involved in the Michigan spill (Enbridge) is not the same company building to Vancouver's inner harbor terminal, TransCanada. Representatives say their company is trying to learn as much as it can from the Kalamazoo spill, but they also stress that their Keystone pipelines should not be compared with the 40-year-old one that busted. And have asserted many times that Alberta to Vancouver is completely safe.
"The new pipelines we want to build are going to be the newest and safest pipelines ever built in the U.S.," says Grady Semmens, a spokesman for TransCanada. (refering to their Keystone line)  "They'll be a lot newer than that line that Enbridge operates. And we're quite confident that any incident even approaching that scale will be very quickly identified and responded to by TransCanada."

The problem is, can we trust anything the pipeline companies say? Just think of the revenue they would receive for 20, 30 or 40 years of pumping dilbit. And one thought - where does their responsibility end? At the terminal in Vancouver? What about the tankers coming and going? What insurances do they have?
 
from a Nov 17, 2017 article ...in USA Today - Associated Press -


The spill of an estimated 210,000 gallons of crude oil in South Dakota from TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline is one of the 20 largest onshore oil or petroleum product spills since 2010.


 Here are the top 20 spills during that period as reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The list ranks them by size and includes the date, gallons spilled, commodity, company name, city or county and state of spill and estimated costs including property and environmental damages.

— July 29, 2013: 865,200 gallons, crude oil, Tesoro High Plains Pipeline Co., MountRail County, N.D., $17,755,766
— July 25, 2010: 843,444 gallons, crude oil, Enbridge Energy, Marshall, Mich., $927,270,213
— Dec. 5, 2016: 529,830 gallons, crude oil, Belle Fourche Pipeline Co., Billings County, N.D., $11,334,049
— June 4, 2011: 513,618 gallons, crude oil, Enterprise Crude Pipeline LLC, Chico, Texas, $1,472,079
— Oct. 11, 2010: 428,400 gallons, crude oil, Centurion Pipeline LP, Levelland, Texas, $70,748
— Jan. 19, 2017: 420,378 gallons, crude oil, Tallgrass Pony Express Pipeline, Logan County, Colo., $345,554
— April 13, 2011: 378,000 gallons, gasoline, Marathon Pipe Line, Dansville, Mich., $38,661,147
— Dec. 8, 2014: 369,600 gallons, gasoline, Plantation Pipe Line Co., Belton, S.C., $3,951,634
— August 29, 2016: 361,200 gallons, crude oil, Sunoco Pipeline LP, Sweetwater, Texas, $4,017,900
— Oct. 23, 2016: 319,326 gallons, crude oil, Enterprise Crude Pipeline LLC, Cushing, Okla., $7,818,638
— Sept. 9, 2010: 316,596 gallons, crude oil, Enbridge Energy, Romeoville, Illi., $52,284,683
— Sept. 9, 2016: 309,540 gallons, gasoline, Colonial Pipeline Co., Helena, Ala., $66,234,072
— Jan. 27, 2011: 290,262 gallons, crude oil, Enterprise Crude Pipeline LLC, Iola, Texas $4,834,962
— Aug. 31, 2017: 240,072 gallons gasoline, Magellan Terminals Holdings LP, Galena Park, Texas, $1,340,026
— March 9, 2013:235,200 gallons, crude oil, Lion Oil Trading and Transportation, Inc., Magnolia, Ark., $3,538,062
— Aug. 31, 2017: 221,424 gallons, gasoline, Magellan Terminals Holding LP, Galena Park, Texas, $1,292,026
— Jan. 30, 2017: 210,000 gallons, crude oil, Enterprise Crude Pipeline, Anna, Texas, $2,346,925
— Nov. 16, 2017: 210,000 gallons, crude oil, TransCanada Corp, Marshall County, S.D., Cost not yet known
— Oct. 13, 2014: 189,378 gallons, crude oil, Mid-Valley Pipeline Co., Mooringsport, La., $12,049,280
— Oct. 31, 2016: 186,669 gallons, gasoline, Colonial Pipeline Co., Helena, Ala., $16,844,292

Of course the facts have no relationship with the job losses, property losses, heartbreak and health risks associated with virtually all of these spills.  

... might have once been a dream place to live.

   ... here is an example of sneaky interfering - this URL should lead to a US Department of Transportation page heading Significant Pipeline Incidents - however it deletes itself from your scrutiny in seconds ; hundreds of spills happen each year in the U.S.   Who did this? It shows that pipeline spills are inevitable.

 TransCanada has said in writing that questions about crude oil spills were hypothetical because their pipeline would be designed not to spill. But in a document for the State Department, TransCanada predicted two spills every 10 years over the entire length of its Keystone XL pipeline, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 Some scientists argue that the company underestimates that risk. Another pipeline it put into service two years ago has had 14 spills in the United States, although most were small, according to TransCanada.

Stay tuned, don't accept every comment from either side, and keep asking questions, the MSM is NOT doing it's job on this one for whatever reasons.


 Super, Natural, British Columbia with the jewel of Canada's West Coast, Vancouver, When is one more tanker just one too many?


Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. -  Margaret Mead