Drill baby drill or is leak baby leak

Phyllis Mains wrote:
>  
> ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Crews on Wednesday were continuing to remove snow 
> contaminated with oil from an area around a well house where a pipe 
> broke in the Prudhoe Bay oil field.
>
> Tom DeRuyter, the state's on-scene spill coordinator, said the area 
> around the well house is misted with oil. He said 72 cubic yards of 
> contaminated snow - most of it from the well house's gravel pad - have 
> been removed but there is more to go.
>
> The spill was discovered Monday morning by a BP oil field operator 
> doing a routine inspection. The break in the 6-inch line occurred 
> where the production line left the well house.
>
> The cause of the break is not yet known, DeRuyter said.
>
> "The case is going to be under investigation as to why the line 
> parted," he said.
>
> BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said the well line broke at a weld and 
> released an estimated 3 gallons of oil and 131 gallons of water. The 
> estimation was reached by considering how much oil and water the pipe 
> normally carried and how quickly the automatic shut-off valve worked, 
> he said.
>
> Rinehart said the pipe carried 98 percent water. A test in 
> mid-December showed it took the valve 30 seconds to close, he said.
>
> Spill responders have delineated the spill area and marked it with 
> stakes in the event it becomes covered in snow, DeRuyter said.
>
> The area of the spill appears to cover about five acres with the 
> heaviest coating of oil closer to the well house and a gravel pad, 
> where an estimated 14,000 square feet was contaminated. The other 
> areas of contamination are about 50,000 square feet in a reserve pit 
> and about 158,000 square feet of snow-covered tundra.
>
> The line that broke carried a mixture of crude oil, produced water and 
> gas. DeRuyter said the contamination appears to be oil.
>
> "It is all misted oil," he said.
>
> DeRuyter said when oil is released under pressure it forms an aerosol 
> and is carried by the wind. The outer edges of the contaminated area 
> are a very faint gray, he said.
>
> Front loaders were being used Wednesday to scoop up the contaminated 
> snow and take it to a facility for disposal.
>
> "The clean up is well under way," Rinehart said.
>
> BP operates the Prudhoe Bay oil field - North America's largest oil field.
>
> Last month, one of the North Slope's biggest spills - 46,000 gallons 
> of oil, water and natural gas - was reported at the Lisburne oil 
> field, another BP-operated site. That spill occurred when an 18-inch 
> line split on Nov. 29. The cause of that spill is believed to be ice 
> buildup in the line.
>
> Lois Epstein, an Anchorage consultant on pipeline safety, said the 
> recent spills highlight a long-standing problem on the North Slope in 
> certain pipelines that carry oil, gas and water. For decades those 
> lines, unlike transit lines that carry oil after processing, have been 
> unregulated by the federal government, she said. The flow lines were 
> placed under state regulation only recently.
>
>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> Nutrition
> Improve your career health. Click now to study nutrition! 
> <http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2142/c?cp=8OoR0j6kQ2NyxLJkouOilAAAJ1CqhysHoqKPmxy1AMlPj2phAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASQwAAAAA=>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To 
> unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: 
> [log in to unmask] Check out our 
> Listserv Lists support site for more information: 
> http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]

Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information:
http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp