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Gordon Bennett
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Alaska oil leak put at 265,000 gallons
Corroded North Slope pipeline is plugged

By Sam Howe Verhovek

chicagotribune.com



Published March 12, 2006

SEATTLE -- Officials on Friday increased their estimate of the oil leaked from a corroded pipeline at the northern tip of Alaska to at least 265,000 gallons, making it the largest spill on record in the North Slope field and one of the worst in the 29-year history of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system.

The report by Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation added grist to the debate over President Bush's push to drill for oil in the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; industry advocates say the drilling can be done with minimal ecological damage, but environmentalists contend it would threaten the fragile ecosystem.

A second leak was detected Friday in a separate transmission pipeline in the mammoth North Slope complex, located about 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The extent or cause of that spill was not known, but it was not expected to be anywhere near as large, the department said.

The main spill was discovered March 2 and plugged last weekend. The largest spill along the pipeline occurred shortly after it opened; in 1978, vandals blew up a section of the 800-mile line and spilled 700,000 gallons of oil. No one was ever arrested.

In October 2001, a hunter was charged after he fired his rifle into the pipeline, causing a 280,000-gallon spill and a cleanup that cost $7 million.

The worst oil spill in Alaska history occurred in 1989, when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound and dumped 11 million gallons.

Environmental advocates said Friday that the recent spills were evidence that oil drilling in Alaska posed a continuing threat.

"This is a catastrophe for the environment," Natalie Brandon, policy director for the Alaska Wilderness League, said of the main spill. "The fact that the oil spill occurred in a caribou-crossing area in Prudhoe Bay is a painful reminder of the reality of unchecked oil and gas development across Alaska's North Slope.

"Aging infrastructure, corroded pipes and failed leak-detection systems ensure that more big accidents like this are a matter of time," said Brandon, "especially if Congress opens up the refuge."

Industry officials have disputed such dire warnings, calling the pipeline system one of the safer and more carefully regulated in the world. Spills represent less than one-thousandth of 1 percent of the volume delivered since the pipeline system opened in 1977, they said.

"If you look at the fact that we have delivered 15 billion barrels of oil down that line since it opened, if you compare any amount of oil spilled, it's a tiny fraction," said Daren Beaudo, a spokesman for BP Exploration-Alaska, the operator of the pipeline stretch.

"But, of course, we are concerned about any spill scenario," Beaudo added.

He said that the spill area had been contained to just under 2 acres and that berms were preventing it from spreading. Clean-up operations were continuing despite subzero temperatures, he said.

It is not clear when the leak in the pipeline occurred.

Lois Epstein, an engineer and oil and gas analyst with Cook Inlet Keeper, a non-profit environmental group in Anchorage, said: "This incident appears to show that, especially with an aging pipeline system, you can have situations where you have small leaks that go on for a long time."

The pipeline system stretches from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean across the Alaskan tundra, over or under hundreds of rivers and streams, and through two mountain ranges before it reaches its southern terminus at Valdez, on the Gulf of Alaska. From there, most of the oil is delivered in tankers to refineries along the West Coast.

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"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a
little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

- Benjamin Franklin

Posts: 3898 | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
NR
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quote:
...the worst in the 29-year history of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system
...and the spill was only 2 acres! 418'x418'

Pretty outstanding record if you ask me.

All the press on this latest "massive" spill is just a pathetic liberal attempt to de-rail drilling in Alaska.

Find something else to cry about 4Art... I mean Gordon..

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One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example.

Posts: 2430 | From: CA | Registered: Jun 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Ramius
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There's already a whole thread on this.
Posts: 722 | From: Richmond, Va , USA | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

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