Guess you can't find harm to wildlife or the environment if you don't
look for it!  Spills are a way of life on our public property.  Phyllis
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Oil began flowing again Monday through the
trans-Alaska pipeline after workers installed a pipe to bypass a leak at
a pump house station on the North Slope.

Alyeska Service Pipeline Co. said it hoped to increase the amount of oil
in the 800-mile pipeline to 500,000 barrels during the next 24 hours.

The pipeline was carrying about 630,000 barrels a day before the leak was
discovered on Jan. 8 in an underground pipe encased in concrete.

"We are really monitoring the pipeline and the equipment very carefully
as we bring it up," said Michelle Egan, a spokeswoman for Alyeska, which
operates the pipeline.

The pipeline delivers about 13 percent of the nation's daily domestic oil
production to tankers for West Coast delivery.

The oil began flowing again after crews completed a 157-foot bypass.

"It is a complicated process," said Rachel Baker-Sears, a spokeswoman for
the Joint Information Center set up in Fairbanks to handle the crisis.

She said the restart went smoothly, but it could take a few days for the
pipeline to return to previous pumping levels.

During the initial shutdown, the flow was scaled back to 5 percent of
previous levels and oil was collected in two large storage tanks at
Prudhoe Bay.

The pipeline was temporarily restarted after four days but was shut down
again on Saturday so the bypass pipe could be installed.

During the shutdown, a containment vault was used to collect the
estimated 13,326 gallons of oil that leaked from the pump station pipe.

Egan said there had been no known harm to wildlife or the environment.

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