Massive Fuel Spill Local News 03/10/00

Crews continue to clean up a mess in North Texas after a 28 inch gas pipeline ruptured overnight spilling about half a million gallons of gasoline into a wheat field near Greenville.

The pipeline reportedly belongs to the Oklahoma based Explorer Pipeline Company.

Fuel leaked into the East Caddo Creek.. but authorities were able to contain it with booms.

Authorities say the spill is under control and not considered a threat beyond the immediate site.

What caused the leak is still being investigated...

Cleanup will take at least a week.

http://www.kwtx.com/News/local_news.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), March 10, 2000

Answers

My Dear Mr. Jenkins,

Firstly I wish to thank you for all the information you have posted ( it has been a lot. And very informing).

The Greenville spill is a few counties to the west of my location. And "they" (the teams working on the spill). Are very concerned at this time. ( A massive thunder storm has moved in over the area). And the lightening strikes ARE a major concern for them. Man! If lightening hits that amount of gasoline! I'll be able to see the red glare from my back door.

"As for me...I shall finish the Game"!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shake (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), March 10, 2000.

Wonder why their whiz bang valves and gages don't tell them about a leak prior to the enormous amount of leakage occuring. Why does so much have to leak before they know?

-- why can't they tell sooner (why@wanttoknow.com), March 11, 2000.

Shakey,

It sounds like you're not too far from where Susan and I live. Maybe we could get together sometime? The email is real, of course, so you can drop me a line if you would be interested in meeting.

-- Steve Heller (steve@steveheller.com), March 11, 2000.

So I wonder how deep and wide the MTBE plume on that amount of gasoline has gotten...

watchin' the stupid people on TV...

The Dog

-- The Dog (dogdesert@hotmail.com), March 11, 2000.

Why can't they tell sooner, If they have only lost half a million gallons then I believe that they have acted pretty damn quick.

Do the math yourself, and work out how mush gasoline is stored in a single mile of 28" pipeline. I make it just over a quarter of a million imperial gallons, or around 300,000 US gallons. And how many miles do you think it would be between isolation valves? I'm sure that it would be more than every mile between such points, perhaps someone from the oil industry can tell us.

So the pipeline protction has had to detect a drop in pressure and/or flow at a receiving station (by which time the leak has already occured and some fuel has already been lost), then the isolation valves at either end of the affected section have to close. These valves can't just be slammed shut, they must be closed slowly in oreder to prevent hydraulic hammer from occuring, or the pipe will rupture somewhere else. Then even once the valves are closed, the fuel in the section with the leak will continue to flow out at the point of failure.

So to only lose half a milion gallons is a commendable effort, and shows that their pipeline protection has functioned extremely well.

As a comparison, at our power station if we had a leak in a penstock pipe, and all protection worked immediately, we would lose over 60 million gallons of water before the leak could be stopped.

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), March 11, 2000.

So,if the corporate Monsters had installed a few more shut-off Valves in the system,instead of paying "Dividends"on their Millions of Dollars of IOU's,they are personally holding,this Calamity could have been minimized.It also reeks of "saving Money"on Maintenance.

-- Keep it up corporates (jail@terms.4CEOs), March 11, 2000.

Keep it up corporates (aka why cant they tell sooner), come on now and start using a bit of common sense. Pipeline design is the job of qualified engineers, and they will design a pipe system to meet certain requirements. The number and position of valves, flow meters etc will depend on a large number of factors, and its not just a matter of putting in a few extra here and there in case of a leak.

But you DO know that, and your posts so far are just a Troll. I should know better than to even respond.

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), March 11, 2000.