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Keystone Pipeline leaks 210,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota
Keystone Pipeline leaks 210,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota
"A total of 210,000 gallons of oil leaked Thursday (Nov 16, 2017) from the Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota, the pipeline's operator, TransCanada, said.
Crews shut down the pipeline Thursday morning, and officials are investigating the cause of the leak, which occurred about three miles southeast of the town of Amherst, said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the state's Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
This is the largest Keystone oil spill to date in South Dakota, Walsh said. The leak comes just days before Nebraska officials announce a decision on whether the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, a sister project, can move forward."
Keystone pipeline - major leak/spill
Elsewhere there are notes of smaller spills in the same pipeline--this AC submitter is wondering about the long term use of a pipeline that is leaking when it's nearly brand new. Doesn't sound good for the long term.
PBS has a followup article from today (Saturday), 'We need to know' more about Keystone oil pipeline leak, tribal chairman says
The leak comes as the debate over the proposed path of the Keystone XL pipeline rages on. Nebraska's Public Service Commission is scheduled to announce its decision Monday on whether to permit TransCanada to build Keystone XL along its proposed route in the state, the Omaha World-Herald reported. A spokeswoman for the commission told the AP that the board's members will only use information provided during public hearings and official public comments in order to make their decision.
Related:
US District Court: Approval of Dakota Access Pipeline Violated the Law
Dakota Access Pipeline Suffers Oil Leak Even Before Becoming Operational
Company Behind Dakota Access Oil Pipeline Sues Greenpeace
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2017, @05:13AM (19 children)
Umm, bad welding is way worse than a puncture! That means shoddy quality control and its likely other parts of the pipeline will fail as well. A puncture would be sabotage or accidents which are not something that can be controlled for.
Actually, how come there isn't an oilduct underneath the pipe to catch and divert any spills?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Sunday November 19 2017, @08:18AM (18 children)
Money.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2017, @08:46AM (17 children)
Ah yes, the fake point system we concocted that prevents humanity from doing things in the best manner possible.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2017, @10:17AM (3 children)
There, fixed that for you...
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2017, @01:32PM (2 children)
FTFY
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 20 2017, @06:27AM (1 child)
Oh yes, let's just all go back to our fucking caves and foraging for food.
And the first motherfucker that responds with any sentiment that glorifies the caveman life style is fucking welcome to go right now and try it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 20 2017, @03:53PM
Hey binary-thinking troll, let me introduce you to the concept of gray areas. Society does not have to be one extreme of cave-dwelling _or_ the other economic extreme of robber-barons. There's a concept of a dynamic, self-correcting political-economic system with strong controls on pricing, quality (warranties), employment, etc. It's working well all around the world. It is not working well in USA and other countries where the ultra-rich control too much of the government and have no concern for who they trample. I invite you to quickly leave our civil society in any way you choose while the rest of us try to improve life on Earth.
(Score: 2, Informative) by fustakrakich on Sunday November 19 2017, @03:45PM (10 children)
Actually it exists to fortify coercive social hierarchies. You know, trickle down...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 20 2017, @02:13AM (9 children)
Where does this money that fortifies coercive social hierarchies come from?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday November 20 2017, @02:17AM (8 children)
Where does a circle begin?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 20 2017, @02:41AM (7 children)
Where the pen touches paper, or where the press strikes the page.
Where did the money you view as a problem come from? There is a valid answer. Money did not "always exist".
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday November 20 2017, @03:53AM (6 children)
Money did not "always exist".
Yes it did. It existed as land and crops and livestock. And the theft through conquests and subsequent subservience to the new owners is the coercion and resulting hierarchies. Now we can do it on paper, and on the internet!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 20 2017, @03:57AM (5 children)
Wrong, money did not always exist. Land and crops and livestock all had an origin. However, that's a misdirection, as most all trade today is not conducted in "land and crops and livestock". In the USA for example, there exists a little thing called a "US Dollar". The current US Dollar (there have been several versions of the US Dollar) has a very specific and identifiable origin; it did not always exist. Where did it originate?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday November 20 2017, @04:05AM (4 children)
Once again you're off the rails and fail to follow the fundamentals. Some other time...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 20 2017, @04:41AM (3 children)
Don't worry; I'll keep using this rope you're providing to me to hang you at a future time. Garbage will be taken out one way or the other.
It'll be interesting to see where this piece will be used: "Money always existed. It predates time and the very matter of the universe." -fustakrakich
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday November 20 2017, @06:38AM (2 children)
:-) Keep on truckin'
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 20 2017, @07:09AM (1 child)
I have noticed that you very much prefer to try to "get in the last word", even when you have only words of absolutely no substance to offer. [soylentnews.org]
What purpose do you imagine that action of yours serving?
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Monday November 20 2017, @03:11PM
I have noticed that you very much prefer to try to "get in the last word"
Nah, you can have it... Keep the lamp lit...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday November 20 2017, @01:42AM (1 child)
Consider this. Is it really in our best interests to deny transportation and life-saving chemicals to millions of people because of a 210,000 gallon spill which will likely be cleaned up shortly? Even in the likely event that we'll see these sorts of spills on an infrequent but regular basis, so what? We're doing a lot more with this oil on an ongoing basis than contaminate some minor part of the environment.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Monday November 20 2017, @11:29PM
YES!!!!!!!!!!!! Jesus fucking Christ dude, pull your head out of your ass. Life-saving chemicals? Bullshit, no you are just really reaching there. WATER is a fucking live-saving chemical. Tar sands are not. Whatever materials could be gained by those resources, could probably be manufactured differently and not require it.
When the consequences outweigh the benefits, you DO NOT proceed, unless the risk assessment gave us the confidence to "roll the dice". I don't think you would disagree with that statement.
Fuck you man. You just literally said it was a means to an end, and that's okay for fuck up that particular area of nature, because the people aren't really equal to the rest of us. Who cares if some native child has to drink tar sands polluted water? If you feel that it is okay, would you continue to live in a place that experienced the spill? Would you drink the well water? Basically, would you live in that "minor part" of the environment?
Also, what credentials do you have to determine "minor" parts of the ecosystem in any particular area? Did you really mean that it wasn't on the West/East coast, and instead was in fly-over country, so why give a fuck?
That "lot more with it", is really just some people getting mega rich. You made it sound like we are also getting "life-saving" life altering medicines and materials out of it. You were speaking out your butt unless you can cite examples that have far more benefit to society other than avaricious financial ones. So don't fucking come back with me that Capitalism itself is a sufficient reason to proceed. It ain't ever going to be.
This is not the only place, and the only way, to get those materials.
In the end, it very much is in our best interests to not let incompetent, avaricious, negligent people to be controlling infrastructure with critical and devastating consequences. A couple hundred thousand gallons of tar sands released into the water is going to be a problem. Not some minor problem that you seem to want to turn it into.
The pumping station spill was minor. A spill in the middle of the line, only due to a failed weld, is MAJOR and clear evidence that they are not taking the steps they said they would, and they say they do. All of those MRI/CAT pigs that can be routinely sent down the pipes absolutely would've detected a failed weld. By now, there should've been multiple passes, and not just one to satisfy the regulators, that they never even looked at completely themselves.
So far the only thing this pipeline does is some make some evil men richer. That's it. If it were really that good for our country, then we need to construct pipelines safely. I already outlined what would be needed to do it, and that all of it is on market now. Not demanding that "science be applied cuz we have to have it right?", but that we force them to buy from other well established companies offering advanced testing and diagnostics for that particular kind of infrastructure they've already brought to market. I can already hear you complaining about "force", but there really is no excuse to use economically viable testing methods on market. Not any good ones at least.
You can buy a smart pig now, and they're routinely used to help test and maintain our infrastructure.
Perhaps not, but mine does. Along with many, many, many engineers in the industry. Safe pipelines are not impossible, but I would not roll the dice so close to waterways. They would get extra protection if required. Fuck, just use excellent QA on all of the materials, inspect, x-ray, and continually certify the welds and welders. Then add redundancy and countermeasures. It's really not all that hard. Really.
It's just not done because the oil executives don't give a fuck. You see it elsewhere. That Dupont board was caught recording a board meeting where they discussed the ongoing poisoning of a farm and family that owned the farm. Lawyer basically gave the "My ass is already toast, so fuck it, I'm not coming back till the morning anyways".
This is one of those instances were need to assiduously avoid some of the pitfalls of Capitalism, namely corruption and the negligence caused by avarice.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.