Exxon Mobil has established a webpage with information on the major spill of heavy Canadian crude from a break in its Pegasus pipeline near Mayflower.
PS — Much to be learned about pipeline safety as this unfolds. For example, wonder when the last time this particular pipeline was PIGged? And what did the computer-guided leak and crack detection test find? And is there anything to this report that the software on the testing devices can be gamed so as to reduce the necessity for making expensive pipe repairs? And, I should add, will Greg Palast, who raises the Pipeline Inspection Gauge question, soon be back on the topic of Tim Griffin and his support for the oil industry, which has pumped at least $200,000 into his congressional campaigns. He’s been a tireless advocate for pipeline construction to benefit the Koch Bros., among Tiny Tim’s major patrons.
PPS — Focus on the Arkansas spill in context of the Keystone XL Pipeline debate continues:
In response to the tar sands spill from Exxon Mobil Corp’s Pegasus pipeline in central Arkansas, 350.org founder Bill McKibben issued the following statement:
“We’d be wise to think about this as one more sad warning, like the spills in Kalamazoo and the Yelowstone River. What the people of Arkansas are enduring today is a reminder of why approving KXL, a pipeline ten times as large and running across the Oglalla Aquifer, defines a bad idea.”
The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would carry nearly 900,000 barrels of tar sands bitumen through the US everyday. McKibben is referencing the 2010 spill in Kalamazoo, Mich, when an Enbridge oil pipeline ruptured, spilling almost 1 million gallons of tar sands bitumen and contaminating over 35 miles of the Kalamazoo river. On July 7, 2011 Exxon-Mobil’s Silver Tip tar sands pipeline ruptured and spilled 42,000 gallons into the Yellowstone River.
The spills are characteristic of tar sands pipelines, which across the Midwest spilled 3.6 times as much crude per mile than the national average between 20010 and 2012. (1) Tar sands pipelines operate at higher temperatures that conventional pipelines and high temperature pipelines are more likely to spill due to external corrosion.
350.org is calling on President Obama to reject the permit for Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.