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With Trump making clear the Dakota Access Pipeline will be completed in an expedited fashion, and authorizing Keystone XL ... the abject displays of ignorance about pipeline safety are resurging.
So rather than industry-wide statistics, lets look at a real world example ... a major pipeline and route located in one of the harshest and most diverse, and most ecologically important ... environments in the world ... the Trans-Alaska pipeline.
Certainly there are few, if any, other pipelines located in more harsh and challenging places anywhere.
How harsh is the Trans-Alaska's route and environment? Lets take a look:
Air Temperature Range Along Route: MINUS -80°F to +95°F.
Diameter of Pipe: 48 inches.
Elevations, Highest:
• Atigun Pass: 4,739 ft.
• Isabel Pass: 3,420 ft.
• Thompson Pass: 2,812 ft.
Grade, Maximum: 145% (55°) at Thompson Pass.
Length of Line: 800 miles (1,288 kilometers)
Mountain Ranges Crossed, North to South (three):
• Brooks Range,
• Alaska Range,
• Ahugach Range.
Right-of-Way Widths:
• Federal land: 54 ft. (buried pipe); 64 ft.
(elevated pipe).
• State land: 100 ft.
• Private land: 54 ft. to 300 ft.
River and Stream Crossings:
• 34 major,
• nearly 500 others.
EARTHQUAKE, In Nov 2002 the pipeline withstood a magnitude 7.9 Richter Scale earthquake that was centered along the Denali Fault in Interior Alaska, approximately 50 miles west of the pipeline. The quake was among the strongest earthquakes recorded in North America in the last 100 years.
So you ask .... HOW SAFE IS THE TRANS-ALASKA pipeline?
Since it began operation in 1977 - now 39 years - the Trans-Alaska - now Aleyska - pipeline:
• Has transported 17,455,737,760 barrels of crude oil.
• Has had on average 11.5 spills per year
• Each spill averaged 92.3 barrels
• A total average of just 1,064 barrels are spilled annually
Out of 17.46 Billion barrels of crude oil delivered in its 39 years an average of just 1,064 barrels annually have spilled from the Trans-Alaska pipeline ... a without incident delivery rate of 99.999762%
This is for a 48" crude oil pipeline built and operating in one of the most severe (and most ecologically sensitive) environments in the world ...
And those numbers are skewed by a couple high profile incidents of sabotage ....
• The single largest spill was the result of sabotage - an explosive charge set at Steele Creek that released 16,000 bbl ...
• And the 2nd largest was also sabotage ... when a drunk used repeated shots from a high powered rifle to breach a weld (more than 50 other gunshots to the pipeline failed to cause a leak) causing a spill of appx 6,142 barrels ... 4,238 barrels were directly recovered ... w/less than 2 acres impacted - which were fully cleaned up.
Take away these two acts of sabotage and over its 39 years and over the 17.46 billion barrels delivered by the Trans-Alaska pipeline there averaged just 11.47 spills per year with an avg spill of 43.3 barrels and a total average annual spill amount of 496 barrels ... an average 99.9999972% safety rating.
Further ... NO ONE can argue that the Trans-Alaska pipeline is in a far more severe environment than the Dakota Access Pipeline ... the Trans-Alaska Pipeline:
• Is almost entirely built above ground and exposed to the elements
• Crosses three mountain ranges, including the nearly mile high Atigun Pass
• Air Temperature Range Along Route: MINUS -80°F to +95°F.
• 34 major, and nearly 500 others river and stream crossings:
• AND travels directly thru an earthquake fault zone ... withstanding a 7.9 quake along its route in 2002 with no spill.
But we are supposed to believe the Dakota Access pipeline - with nearly 40 year newer technology, fully buried and protected from the elements and sabotage along essentially its entire route, and in an area with basically no earthquake threat ... is somehow going to experience massive risk of leaks ...
(A FB feed post)
