Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The Dakota Access pipeline already had its first leak – 84 gallons of oil – at a pump station in South Dakota in early April, sparking outrage and calling into question its environmental safety.
[...] The report of the spill can be found on the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources website. The agency apparently did not make any official announcement on the incident as it was relatively minor and had no environmental impact, according to Brian Walsh, a scientist with the department, as cited by the Guardian. The site "was cleaned up right away," the official added as quoted by ABC news.
The spill occurred less than 110 miles from Lake Oahe, which supplies Sioux tribes with water.
Source: Dakota Access pipeline suffers oil leak even before becoming operational
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @07:56PM (3 children)
84galons that's about 300l or around 2 barrels, like 120$ worth of oil and approximately 0$ of ecological damage.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Weasley on Saturday May 13 2017, @09:59PM (2 children)
Yes but the lake was only 100 miles away. It's probably ruined now.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday May 16 2017, @10:20PM (1 child)
I have no idea how you got modded informative, but the very fact it was 100 miles away makes your statement completely and wholly false. This was 84 *gallons*. A little over 1 1/2 barrels of oil (using 55 gallon drums). It was nothing. Over the course of a summer you lose more oil from watercraft into our lakes and rivers. It truly was an operationally miniscule amount that was fully accounted for and handled because it happened at a pumping station.
As one of the water protectors, I can tell you honestly that this is not the thing to get upset about. At all. I don't even consider this a leak, but that it was characterized as a leak for propaganda purposes. I don't appreciate that because I have intimate engineering knowledge of oil & gas as well as fracking. Having been on wells being drilled, I can promise you that a lot more than that is spilled while drilling and accounted for in cement lined holding ponds.
When DAPL fails, it will NOT be only 84 gallons of oil. There have been many, many, many oil spills in U.S history, and none of them list amounts that small. So when a leak happens, you will understand just exactly what a leak is when it exceeds this "spill" in a just a few minutes.
We must resist, but we also must have logic, science, and history on our side. This isn't the battle you are looking for...
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by Weasley on Thursday May 18 2017, @05:25AM
I agree. I thought my sarcasm was so thick you could stop 50 caliber bullets with it.