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The Colonial Pipeline spill has caused 6 states (Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and North Carolina) to declare a state of emergency. Gasoline (petrol) prices on the east coast are likely to spike. Yet, most puzzling is how this vast emergency and its likely effect on cost of living has gone unnoticed by mainstream media outlets. The pipeline is owned by Koch Industries: is this why the media is silent?
[Are there any Soylentils in the affected area who can corroborate this story? Have you heard of the spill, seen long gas lines, or any price gouging? -Ed.]
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Six US States Declare Emergency after Major Gasoline Pipeline Spill; Media Almost Silent
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
If the thunder don't get you, then the lightning will.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @01:00PM
It seems a little early to use this particular spill to advance an existing agenda.
First we need to see why the pipeline failed in this particular spot.
Hopefully it was an external cause.
If not, then hopefully is was just localized poor maintenance.
If not, the hopefully just a small section is involved.
If not, and the the whole line is suspect, then it's time to hold somebody accountable.
If this is the case, then it doesn't seem right to neglect a critical piece of infrastructure while milking it for profits.
Such a senario should stick even to these owner's teflon suits.
This issues to raise are both liability looking back and ownership looking forward.
Something like a TVA might do well in running such a thing.
Just make sure it's not run by something like the EPA.
The folks on the Colorado river can attest that actually running this sort of thing is not a job for lawyers.
These days, it seems like an internal ultrasonic inspection should be fairly easy and routine?
What's the state of the art of pipeline inspection?
Such a discussion would be interesting here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @01:23PM
> First we need to see why the pipeline failed in this particular spot.
Do we? Sounds more like your goal is to focus on the trees and ignore the forest.
Are you, perhaps, on the spectrum?
Because the OP's point is that pipelines break all the damn time for all kinds of reasons and that's why people are protesting the dakota pipeline. When your water supply is polluted and you can't farm because of it, the exact reason why your water supply was contaminated is fucking irrelevant. That's a problem for the people who want the pipeline to worry about. The effects are the problem of the people affected.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday September 19 2016, @02:05PM
No, I have to disagree with you. If the cause of the leak is an external factor, then perhaps the problem is absolutely nothing to do with the construction or maintenance of the pipeline itself. For example, if an aircraft has crashed onto the pipeline then the problem is caused by the aircraft crash, not by the pipeline being unable to withstand such an event. So knowing 'why the pipeline failed in this particular spot', i.e. what has caused this problem, is one of the first things that we should be looking at. Start at the fault and work outwards.
Yes, pipelines do break 'all the time' but that doesn't mean every pipeline break should have been foreseen. That a single break can have such a catastrophic result for a fairly large region of the US is something for concern, but that might be an infrastructure failure rather than a pipeline design failure. Having two or more smaller pipelines going different routes might be a more resilient solution, but I bet it will not be a cheaper one, nor as profitable. As always, you get only as much as you are willing to pay for.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @04:19PM
Pipelines are known to leak. Stop acting as if this is an isolated incident.
(many many leaks a year and these are just the reported ones)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pipeline_accidents_in_the_United_States_in_the_21st_century [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday September 19 2016, @04:53PM
And until you know why this particular pipeline leak has occurred - stop acting as if you know what has happened and why.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @08:10PM
> And until you know why this particular pipeline leak has occurred - stop acting as if you know what has happened and why.
The only WHY that matters is that the pipeline was there. Without a pipeline all those possible failure modes that could lead to the pipeline leaking would not have cause a leak.
Sure it matters to the pipeline engineers and their employers. But to the people who suffer the consequences none of that does - no pipeline, no leak no matter what.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday September 20 2016, @08:31AM
So your response appears to be that there shouldn't be any pipelines at all? I hope that you enjoy life without a car while living in your cave, with light provided by candles and cooking on your log fire. Sure, renewables might eventually be the answer - but we are a long way from replacing oil by alternative sources for a while yet. Can you provide a more economic way of transporting that amount of fuel over the distances concerned?
So none of those suffering the consequences of the leak are in the least bit concerned with the potential lack of fuel for their vehicles, for the power that is provided for everything that they use on a daily basis? Sure, they might have their own personal generators, but they do not power communications towers, television and radio broadcasting, hospitals, emergency services and so on.
So I contend that we should find the most economic and safe way of using the energy sources that we do have, while investing more heavily in research into alternative sources.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @04:56PM
Let's build more pipelines, so we can keep driving even when they fail!
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday September 20 2016, @02:11AM
Even in your aircraft crashing into pipeline scenario, there's the problem of not monitoring enough to notice and the problem of resistance to use the shut-off valve, which may be quite a way from the leak. That plane might have missed the pipeline, so why cut into profits by shutting sown the pipeline until reports of a spill come in and are verified.