Another pipeling spill makes national news!

[tchammer]

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/0...hp_ref=ca-news

So a 100L spill is now enough to make national news, and have the chicken littles freakin' out.

To put this in perspective this spill amounts to less than the amount of milk our family drinks in a month.

[Jjolg123]

I saw this on the news yesterday and thought they either misspoke or I misheard the 100l part... I guess not

[Norwest Alta]

Originally Posted by tchammer

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/0...hp_ref=ca-news

So a 100L spill is now enough to make national news, and have the chicken littles freakin' out.

To put this in perspective this spill amounts to less than the amount of milk our family drinks in a month.

Gotta give them credit that it wasn't measured in mililitres

[Badgerbadger]

This is the type of thing that pipelines should present as a positive thing.

This is just over 1/2 a barrel of oil. This is less milk than a family drinks in a month, as you say. And systems were in place to detect, and contain it such that there were no significant impacts.

[Norwest Alta]

Originally Posted by Badgerbadger

This is the type of thing that pipelines should present as a positive thing.

This is just over 1/2 a barrel of oil. This is less milk than a family drinks in a month, as you say. And systems were in place to detect, and contain it such that there were no significant impacts.

Absolutely. Oil companies seem to do a pizz poor job selling and promoting themselves.

[Arty]

Originally Posted by Norwest Alta

Absolutely. Oil companies seem to do a pizz poor job selling and promoting themselves.

Obviously they also do a pizz poor job of maintaining or operating their "flow metre"s as well.

If the impulse tubing taps or whatever are so loose they can't hold operating pressure without leaking or blowing out, then somebody is doing something wrong. Same thing if a manifold was left in the wrong position(s). Depending on some pressure loss or mass balance alarm coming in to head office instead of hiring more instrumentation people to actually go out and check the equipment once in a while is false economy.

This all smells like a company trying to cheap out on instrument maintenance & monitoring; leaving themselves wide open to a bunch of idiot greenies & treehuggers at the worst possible time. At least they could broadcast the details of exactly what went wrong & how that situation will be improved.

[hal53]

Originally Posted by Arty

Obviously they also do a pizz poor job of maintaining or operating their "flow metre"s as well.

If the impulse tubing taps or whatever are so loose they can't hold operating pressure without leaking or blowing out, then somebody is doing something wrong. Same thing if a manifold was left in the wrong position(s). Depending on some pressure loss or mass balance alarm coming in to head office instead of hiring more instrumentation people to actually go out and check the equipment once in a while is false economy.

This all smells like a company trying to cheap out on instrument maintenance & monitoring; leaving themselves wide open to a bunch of idiot greenies & treehuggers at the worst possible time. At least they could broadcast the details of exactly what went wrong & how that situation will be improved.

Why would they say "exactly what went wrong" now???..you just posted on a public forum what you "think" may have happened and for the eco warriors whether that is right or wrong they have the "solid info" that it was the oil companies cheaping out

[Arty]

Originally Posted by hal53

Why would they say "exactly what went wrong" now???..you just posted on a public forum what you "think" may have happened and for the eco warriors whether that is right or wrong they have the "solid info" that it was the oil companies cheaping out

Stating exactly what happened gives them a chance to come clean, quell any further speculation, and show they actually care enough about the problem to fix the root cause of it, whether technical or procedural. Covering up details on the other hand just fans political fires, giving radicals exactly what they want.

It also gives anyone else in the industry in the same situation information to check their own operations and make sure it doesn't happen there. It's simple professionalism.

If they take issue with 'cheapening out' on maintenance or equipment, this is a great opportunity to prove otherwise. Or to fix the problem. I have never heard of any operating company spending too much on maintenance or good equipment or good people.

[drhu22]

Originally Posted by Arty

Obviously they also do a pizz poor job of maintaining or operating their "flow metre"s as well.
If the impulse tubing taps or whatever are so loose they can't hold operating pressure without leaking or blowing out, then somebody is doing something wrong. Same thing if a manifold was left in the wrong position(s). Depending on some pressure loss or mass balance alarm coming in to head office instead of hiring more instrumentation people to actually go out and check the equipment once in a while is false economy.
This all smells like a company trying to cheap out on instrument maintenance & monitoring; leaving themselves wide open to a bunch of idiot greenies & treehuggers at the worst possible time. At least they could broadcast the details of exactly what went wrong & how that situation will be improved.

Maybe getting even smaller events reported is a good thing, just to keep companies a bit more honest in their responsibilities ie maintenance, etc.

[Bigwoodsman]

Originally Posted by drhu22

Maybe getting even smaller events reported is a good thing, just to keep companies a bit more honest in their responsibilities ie maintenance, etc.

When I first heard of this spill and there was no mention of the cause my first thought is that some anti pipeline knumbscal caused the release!

I haven’t heard what the cause was so I guessing it’s still under investigation

BTW
growing up in a family of six we collectively consumed 40 litres of milk every week.

BW

[Desert Eagle]

Perhaps the incidents should be reported for truck and rail spill statistics vs pipeline... I don't know about you guys, but I've never saw a pipeline fall off the tracks and blow up a town....

[Battle Rat]

Originally Posted by Arty

Obviously they also do a pizz poor job of maintaining or operating their "flow metre"s as well.

If the impulse tubing taps or whatever are so loose they can't hold operating pressure without leaking or blowing out, then somebody is doing something wrong. Same thing if a manifold was left in the wrong position(s). Depending on some pressure loss or mass balance alarm coming in to head office instead of hiring more instrumentation people to actually go out and check the equipment once in a while is false economy.

This all smells like a company trying to cheap out on instrument maintenance & monitoring; leaving themselves wide open to a bunch of idiot greenies & treehuggers at the worst possible time. At least they could broadcast the details of exactly what went wrong & how that situation will be improved.

Did you get that from the Huff post article or is there more info some where else?
Sound s like an ESD caused transient over pressure event.

[whiteout]

Originally Posted by tchammer

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/0...hp_ref=ca-news

So a 100L spill is now enough to make national news, and have the chicken littles freakin' out.

To put this in perspective this spill amounts to less than the amount of milk our family drinks in a month.

How does your family drink over 100L of milk in a month?

I mean, I like milk too, but that’s a huge amount

[Badgerbadger]

Originally Posted by whiteout

How does your family drink over 100L of milk in a month?

I mean, I like milk too, but that’s a huge amount

I would guess 2 teenaged boys.

We'd go through 4L milk/day with my stepsons. I monitored them, once, and at least one was eating something every 20 minutes, all day long.

So, even in a regular February, they were going through about 112 l of milk.

[michaelmicallef]

The sad thing about it is there are people out there that think 100 l is a big deal. That’s scary to me. Oh and the fact that the media thought that was news worthy. That’s really unnerving.