Keystone pipeline leaked 16,000 gallons .....

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Keystone pipeline leaked 16,000 gallons .....

Last edited Thu Apr 7, 2016, 06:45 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: From RT

Keystone pipeline leaked 16,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota field

Published time: 7 Apr, 2016 21:01

Edited time: 7 Apr, 2016 22:19

TransCanada estimated on Thursday that about 16,800 gallons of oil leak in a field in South Dakota from the Keystone I pipeline. The spill, discovered by a farmer over the weekend, led the company to close down the pipeline. The company reported the estimate to the National Response Center and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration which is equivalent to 400 barrels of oil, according to the Associated Press.

The company began excavating the site on Sunday in a field close the town of Freeman, South Dakota, by turning over topsoil. It said they exposed more than 100 feet of pipe, and the estimate comes from oil being observed in the soil, and the potential area affected. There are about 100 workers at the site working around the clock to pinpoint the source of the leak in the pipeline. TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper reported the revised estimate Thursday morning.

“The volume estimate reported this morning to the National Response Centre (NRC) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration (PHMSA) was based on the safe excavation of soil to expose more than 100 feet of pipe,” Cooper wrote, according to the Angus Leader. “It takes into account a number of factors, including oil observed in the soil and the potential area impacted.”

Elizabeth Lone Eagle, an official intervener for the state of South Dakota, however is worried about the spill’s close proximity to the James and Missouri rivers and worried that the “groundwater contamination is heading to Yankton, Vermillion, Sioux City... all the way down,” according to CommonDreams. The leak is the fifth in the state for Keystone I, which was approved by the Public Utilities Commission in 2008. DENR’s spill map shows three releases of petroleum in 2010 and one in 2011, one of which took place at the same pump station in 2010, when less than five gallons were released due to a fitting leak, according to the Argus Leader.

TransCanada’s Keystone I pipeline carries light and heavy crude from Hardisty, Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma, while passing through the eastern Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. The Keystone I pipeline can handle 550,000 barrels, or about 23 million gallons, daily.

Read more: https://www.rt.com/usa/338845-keystone-oil-spill-dakota/

Edited to add: Key words here: "The spill, discovered by a farmer over the weekend..." !!!!

I watched this story on RT, the reporter said, (paraphrasing), that these pipes use pressure sensors to alert the company of leaks. At the percentage loss from this particular leak, there was insufficient pressure drop to cause the alarms to go off. This all begs the questions: what if this leak had occurred where "farmer" wasn't strolling about? What if this leak was still spilling out atop an important aquifer and nobody knew?

I dunno, to me this should be a bigger story than He Said/She Said

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Type: Discussion • Score: 4 • Views: 1,290 • Replies: 18

@bobsal u1553115,

Wow. I didn't know Keystone was more than just a plan.

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Yep. They went ahead and placed pipelines in areas where they had no resistance betting that they had Teaparty Congress and a center right Democratic administration which had not cleared all TeaOP regulators. They really, really thought the fix was in.

Makes one wonder if Hillary had to give back the "speakers" fees or had to make other "considerations" instead.

1 Reply

@bobsal u1553115,

The DAARPA network system will go ahead, regardless of which puppet sits at the oval table.
Do you believe 'presidents' have any say (Of their own)?

AWESOME QUOTE - "That, which is financed, will do exactly what its financiers tell it to do".

1 Reply

@mark noble,

Mark, how have you been?

We were saddled with a form of Keystone before they ever asked for the Keystone XL permissions.

I believe Presidents have final says, even if the final say isn't their own say.

1 Reply

@bobsal u1553115,

This (and other such environmental disasters) makes me mad as well as sad. However, I'm heartened by the fact that the Keystone pipeline expansion was stopped. I was aware that the existing Keystone pipeline went through Canadian Rockies down through the northern plains.

I'm nothing if I'm not a nit-picky number-cruncher nerd ... so I diddled around with the math to figure how quickly it was caught by someone:

If those quoted numbers are correct, if it pumps at the peak(?) a rate of nearly a million-gallons-per-day, then a leak/loss of 16,000 gals would've occurred in what period of time?
Answer: approx. 1:45 but less than 2 mins.

I'm gob-smacked and amazed that a farmer happened to catch such a leak and report it THAT fast? It takes me that long to find and take my cell phone out of my pocket.

Furthermore, this is a smaller nit-pick. The math for 400 barrels (quoted) leak would amount to 400 gallons times 55 gal (nominal amount held in a barrel) = or 22,000 gals. However this can be someone's approximation.

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@bobsal u1553115,

All is brilliant. Thanks bobs.

I followed Porter Ranch from the offset - Are more, btw (missouri, wyoming, san juan) and concluded - Your governors (not all) care more about virtually everything than the demograph that contains their citizens.

Financiers have the only say - Who they say it via is also their choosing.

Try this - If I offered you $10,000,000 to shave all the hair off your head whilst singing 'over the rainbow' - would you do it?

1 Reply

FWIW, I had to look this up: how old is this pipeline?

"Keystone, which runs about 2,150 miles from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the U.S. Midwest, is less than a decade old."

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@Ragman,

The leak wouldn't have been a complete rupture. It could have been as small of a leak as one gallon an hour for 16,000 hours. The fact that they are having to dig up the entire pipeline in the area to find the leak tells me the leak is not a complete rupture.

I thought they had systems in place to confirm the oil in at one end equals the oil out at the other to test for such leaks. Clearly those didn't work as they were supposed to.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

I agree. This pipeline was not made for tar sand oil. It'll wear out and then we can fight whether they are allowed to "rebuild" or not.

They think so highly of that ****, let them refine it up there in Canada.

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@mark noble,

Quote:

Your governors (not all) care more about virtually everything than the demograph that contains their citizens.

The biggest demographic they serve comes bearing cash.

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@Ragman,

an oil barrel was established via the Drake Wells an was setlled on in the mid 1860s(for the US and later , the world)
An oil barreli 42 US gallons or 2 gallons more thn a whiskey barrel.

"Barrel" still has no standard measure for many liquid and dry stuffs.

42 gal was (I think) an old English wine meaure.

I used to make jokes about "rounding off a barrel to the whiskey standard an then taking my fee in the resultant 2 gallon per barrel spread. Thatd be about 20 barrels or about 1400 to 2000 bucks a day just for sitting on my ass. PER WELL.

I had a few rather large fields

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@farmerman,

thank you. Clearly, they had me over a barrel. My error but I've often heard that 55-gal amount bandied about. I bow to your obvious expertise.

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@parados,

Quote:

The leak wouldn't have been a complete rupture.

doooh...of course.

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@farmerman,

Of course, I respect your expertise. I'd be a fool to not do so.

What I can't make sense of is what Wiki has in the following quote. Perhaps you can explain it to me?

"In modern times, many different types of oil, chemicals, and other products are transported in steel drums. In the United States, these commonly have a capacity of 55 US gallons and are referred to as such. They are called 210-litre or 200-kg drums outside the United States. In the United Kingdom and its former dependencies, a 44-imperial gallon drum is used, even though all those countries now officially use the metric system and the drums are filled to 200 litres. Thus, the 42-US-gallon oil barrel is a unit of measure, and is no longer a physical container used to transport crude oil, as most petroleum is moved in pipelines or oil tankers. In the United States, the 55-US-gallon size of barrel as a unit of measure is largely confined to the oil industry, while different sizes of barrel are used in other industries. Nearly all other countries use the metric system. Many oil-producing countries still use the American oil barrel"

1 Reply

@Ragman,

a "barrel of oil" is the unit of measure and its at a std T/P. The container has nothing to do with it. Thats why the damned units of measure for all kinds of substances varies. Then we put everything in a tanker and plop it into 55 gal DRUMS.

The steel industry defined the dimensions of the damn things , not me.
Theres a lot more. The imp gal in a 55 gal drum (which is really 57 US gal or 218 liters) is 48.BUT the drum is only filled to 200 liters. We have to compute how many imp gals that is(Its near 42 if not on).

Wecan also operate by cu ft at STP or US gallons when piped. I sid that I did not make this **** up.

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@farmerman,

Just like grain is measured by the bushel. I haven't seen a bushel since Mom used one for a laundry, but that's the tradition. Even water is by the 42 gallon barrel in the oilfield. A "load of water" is 82 barrels. That's the capacity of the water trucks, and they can't deliver much less than a full load unless they have some real special baffling inside the tank.

Just in case anyone cared.

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@farmerman,

Thanks for clearing it up. Mind you, I'm not doubting you. I'm being thick...(like diesel) about this stuff.

I knew I had heard sumpin' about 55-gal drums from somewhere.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

I just found something in my handbook.(I wont drag out the volumes and other bullshit)> JUST the fact that a 55 gal drum has a nominal OD of about 24.++ " so. We can fit 4 on a standard wooden or plastic pallette.
I got nothin else.

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Keystone pipeline leaked 16,000 gallons .....

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