"California pipeline was severely eroded before it burst, causing massive oil spill: report"

[Cleita]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/california-pipeline-eroded-burst-article-1.2246089

California pipeline was severely eroded before it burst, causing massive oil spill: report
BY JASON SILVERSTEIN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Thursday, June 4, 2015, 1:59 AM Updated: Thursday, June 4, 2015, 1:02 PM

The California pipeline that spilled more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil in Santa Barbara County last month was so severely eroded that it was less than one-fifth of its original thickness, federal regulators revealed Wednesday.

A preliminary report from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration indicated that 82% of the metal pipe's walls had worn away by the time it burst in late May.

“There is pipe that can survive 80% wall loss,” Richard Kuprewicz, president of Accufacts Inc., which investigates pipeline problems, told media Wednesday.

“When you’re over 80 percent, there isn’t room for error at that level.”

The pipe’s break site was also degraded to just one-sixteenth of an inch thick, and a six-inch opening was seen close to the bottom of the pipe, investigators said. That opening was near three repairs made on the pipe in 2012 after inspectors found corrosions there.

more at link

How many more pipelines, wells and other in need of repair oil equipment does California have? Now they also want to bring oil bomb trains with Alberta tar sand oil through here. I will be posting soon about this too. What are we going to do Californians? Well, I'm a radical and would have the state take over all oil operations in this State until we get the problem under control. But I know that won't happen.

[KamaAina]

1. San Jose city councilmember Ash Kalra has been all over the oil bomb train thing

since the beginning. The trains would pass through his District 2 in south San Jose.

[Cleita]

2. I've been to a couple of meetings here in SLO County. It still has to go before the Board of

Supervisors. The Conoco Phillips people and Union Pacific are full of shit saying how great it would be as far as I'm concerned.

[tularetom]

4. It'd go within a few blocks of our house so I'm concerned

I assume there will be public hearings if it is to be decided by the Supes. But I haven't gotten a notice yet.

[Cleita]

5. There already have been three public meetings that I'm aware of.

Two were at the City Council meetings of Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach and one at the So. County Democrats Club. I believe Paso and Atascadero have or will have meetings. It's the B of Sup that will decide though if the rail spur and trains go through this county. I don't know what's happening in the other counties affected. Here's a link to some information:

http://www.mesarefinerywatch.com/

[upaloopa]

3. Go to www.refugioresponse.com for the latest

information about the Santa Barbara spill

[petronius]

6. Two bits of info that I had been curious about:

Just weeks before the pipe burst, inspectors from its company, Plains All American, checked it and concluded it had only eroded to 45% of its thickness, according to Wednesday’s report.

The massive leak started the morning of May 19, after the pipe showed some mechanical issues, got shut down by the company’s Houston control center for about 20 minutes, and then started up again.

I had read that the pipe was smart-pigged a few weeks before the break, but hadn't heard what the results were. It's definitely a cause for concern that the inspection result was so far off the reality.

Also, I had read that the company shut down the pipe prior to the leak being detected on the ground--which I though was a positive point for the operator--but didn't know that they'd immediately restarted it. Seems possible that could have done a better job figuring out what the anomaly had been before restarting the pipeline...

[Cleita]

7. Also, aren't we supposed to have state inspectors? Leaving inspections to the companies

involved is putting the fox in the henhouse, isn't it? I think we need some heavy state involvement in the outside oil interests in our state.

[antiquie]

8. LA Times reports Head of California agency accused of favoring oil industry quits

Los Angeles Times | June 5, 2015 | 3:05 PM

Mark Nechodom, the director of the California Department of Conservation, which oversees the embattled agency that regulates the state's oil and gas industry, resigned Thursday.

California's oil regulators, the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, have been facing scrutiny from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after allowing oil producers to drill thousands of oilfield wastewater disposal wells into federally protected aquifers.

[Cleita]

9. That's something at least.

Let's hope there is a thorough housecleaning.