Alberta oil spill

[oneh2obabe]

Breaking News:
As much as 475,000 litres of oil has leaked into Alberta's Red Deer River tributary

Plains Midstream Canada said it was notified about the leak near Sundre, Alta. Thursday night. The leak is 160,000 to 475,000 litres in size, which was released into Jackson Creek. The company is dispatching aircraft to survey the damage, which local residents expect to be significant, with the Red Deer River currently flooding.

"I would expect that the vast majority of it will end up in the Red Deer River," said Bruce Beattie, reeve of Mountain View County. "It's a major concern."

Following heavy rainfall in Alberta over recent days, the Red Deer River is flowing fast and wide, a fact that stands to exacerbate the effects of the spill.

Jackson Creek is located north, and downstream, of Sundre. The spill, however, is upstream of Red Deer, Alberta's third-largest city, which is some 75 kilometres away.

With the Red Deer in "in significant flood, it won't take long to be down the river for sure," said Mr. Beattie.

The spilled oil is light sour crude. The pipeline was not operating at the time, and Plains did not detect the leak itself -- a pattern that has reoccurred at numerous recent spills. The company was informed of the leak by the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group, a not-for-profit society established to help navigate issues between oil companies and residents.

Plains Midstream, a subsidiary of Plains All American American Pipeline LP, is the same company that saw a 28,000-barrel spill in northern Alberta last year. That spill on the Rainbow pipeline was discovered in late April of 2011. It halted operations on some stretches of the Rainbow line until late August.

Alberta has suffered a string of oil leaks, including a recent spill that was discovered May 19 from piping attached to a well owned by Pace Oil & Gas Ltd. That spill, Pace said this week, was smaller than the 22,000 barrels initially believed. Pace said it was less than 5,000 barrels, although the actual quantity of spilled oil did not change much. Pace initially believed the spill was 70 per cent water. It now says it was entirely light oil.

Plains said it intended to release more details on its spill later this morning.

Oil spills into waterways are considered particularly serious, since water can so rapidly spread a spill, and substantially worsen the impacts of the oil.

According to a fishing website, Jackson Creek is just eight kilometres from Sundre, and is home to bull trout, brown trout and brook trout.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... cmpid=rss1

[Fritzthecat]

Well I have no issue letting those guys pump crude oil through my watershed as long as somebody makes a buck or two. :127:

[coffeeFreak]

I couldn't help but think, at least it happened in their own back yard...

[Gilchy]

I couldn't help but think, at least it happened in their own back yard...

Yes, because we don't use any oil here.

[Fritzthecat]

I couldn't help but think, at least it happened in their own back yard...

That is the most offensive and inappropriate thing I have seen in a while, Canada IS our back yard!

[hobbyguy]

One more reason not to trust the spiel from Enbridge - although in this case it wasn't their pipeline.

[coffeeFreak]

I couldn't help but think, at least it happened in their own back yard...

That is the most offensive and inappropriate thing I have seen in a while, Canada IS our back yard!

Yes my thought was inappropriate and of course this spill is terrible, but I am tired of hearing about how this industry isn't hurting the environment, that there are so many safety standards in place that spills are unlikely, yada yada, as if their schpeels will convince us that running a pipeline through Northern BC should be okay because they say so...

[Fritzthecat]

Yes my thought was inappropriate and of course this spill is terrible, but I am tired of hearing about how this industry isn't hurting the environment, that there are so many safety standards in place that spills are unlikely, yada yada, as if their schpeels will convince us that running a pipeline through Northern BC should be okay because they say so...

So your sarcasm button was on? :smt017

[Treblehook]

We can get to the moon, decades ago, and do all sorts of other amazing things, but these oil barons can't seem to come up with a pipeline that is safe and secure. I am pretty certain that the technology and the materials necessary to make an oil pipeline absolutely safe exist. The problem is these oil barons don't want to spend the money it would cost to build them. We need only look at how long oil was shipped around the world in single hulled bulk carriers before the EXxon Valdez disaster forced them to spend the money to build double hulled vessels. Canadian's response to this issue of building the proposed pipeline ought to be ... you want a pipeline, then build one that independant engineers certify as 99.999% safe, otherwise.. bugger off!

[D suzuki]

they do exist my company makes and welds pressure pipe, problem is its expensive especialy if its lined with rubber so they always go with the cheap pipe, hence spills

[Fritzthecat]

they do exist my company makes and welds pressure pipe, problem is its expensive especialy if its lined with rubber so they always go with the cheap pipe, hence spills

Exactly: Price is the issue. It is not that they can't afford to make it safer, they don't want to and nobody with authority is forcing them to make it safer. Just like cars and seat belts.

[process99]

I wonder if the double hull tanker principal can be used with pipe, the double walled pipe. Im sure it would be expensive but it would give them a testable barrier to check for leaks and if one did occurr it could be easily contained and reclaimed.

P99

[Gilchy]

With how many millions of kms of pipes in North America alone, versus relatively few spills, pipelines are virtually 99.999% safe. Just when spills do occur, they are bad news bears.