BP Strikes Again: Broken pipe sprays oily plume across snowy tundra at Prudhoe Bay
Environmental officers with the state of Alaska are investigating an oil spill at Prudhoe Bay, after an unknown quantity of natural gas, crude oil and water escaped from a flow line operated by BP Exploration Alaska on Monday, spraying 27 acres of snow-covered tundra with an oily mist.
The release from the line at H Pad, Well 8 in Western Prudhoe Bay began at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, but stopped in two hours after the line was isolated and depressurized, according to a statement from the Department of Environmental Conservation.
Such a large area of snow was covered because the leak occurred in the pipes 12 oclock position, on top, and the pressurized gas sprayed crude oil and water into a strong wind, said Ashley Adamczak, a spokesperson with DEC.
The pressurized gas forced fluid to go up and hit a 30 mph wind, and that is what caused such a long release, said Adamczak.
The damage is a little more than a mile from the 2006 leak of a transit line that ultimately became the largest recorded spill on the North Slope. That spill lasted five days and discharged 200,000 gallons over two acres. BP ultimately pled guilty to negligent discharge after failing to address corrosion.
In response to that event, the company spent $500 million and upgraded 16 miles of transit pipeline headed to a processing facility -- called Gathering Center 2 -- where oil, gas and water are separated, said Dawn Patience, a BP spokesperson.
This latest leak occurred in six-inch-diameter pipe leaving a wellhead. Such flow lines or well lines connect to a manifold and eventually a transit line thats headed to a processing facility, Patience said.
The 2006 event is completely unrelated to the current release, said Adamczak.
As for the cleanup, the hope is to get the oil and water removed before the snow and ice melts, and before migratory birds arrive in perhaps a couple of weeks, Adamczak said.
No wildlife has been observed at the site, the agency reported.
To determine the amount of fluid spilled, the agency plans to collect oiled snow and ice. Well go into the field and do assessments in different areas to see the depths and volume of the product in what we consider to be representative areas and come up with an estimate, Adamczak said.
BP, which operates Prudhoe Bay on behalf of partners Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, is the responsible party for the cleanup. The company and the Environmental Protection Agency, the DEC and the North Slope Borough have established a unified command to oversee the response.
In addition to DECs investigation into the cause of the release, BP is also investigating the cause of the spill, said Adamczak.
Im sure other agencies will look into it as well, she said.
Full Article: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140429/broken-pipe-sprays-oily-plume-across-snowy-tundra-prudhoe-bay
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Good old BP, the gift that keeps on giving./s
Check the size of the blow out. That didn't just develop that way the swelling of the pipe should have been obvious for weeks.
BP is also known as, ''Prevention R Us..NOT''..
Ugh.
This is but ONE of the over 1,000 spills per year on the North slope. Not just BP, but they all spill. BP is on my personal ick list, just because of the Gulf mess. Yet, I know they are all of the same ilk.
And the 2006 fuckup is completely related to Deepwater Horizon, and the Horizon fuckup is completely unrelated to... Just another 'incident' in an unfortunate and totally unforeseeable series of completely unrelated episodes--- Man oh man, who'da thunk it?
They are ALL related, because they were caused by the same "We don't give a damn" general attitude.
It's like that company where I had a project once... There were puddles of pink and purple goo steaming in the air, (temp about 60o). The guys that worked there said, "Completely Safe! Biodegradeable! Harmless!" Then, about 10 minutes later, one of them told me, privately, "Don't walk in that stuff. It will eat the boots right off your feet..."
BP and their ilk have and will continue to show a complete disregard for the environment as long as no one in the government has the balls to stand up to them and say NO.
5-03-2014 update for the article:
Oil-soaked snow removal continues at Prudhoe Bay
Crews responding to a pipeline leak at the Prudhoe Bay oil field have completed their freezeprotection of the leaking line and moved onto the task of removing snow that was sprayed with crude oil and oil-laced produced water, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation saidThursday.
The spill, discoveredMondayat a flow line of a well pad in the western part of the Prudhoe Bay field, created a mist of oil and produced water that sprayed 33 acres of snow-covered tundra, DEC said. The crews removed 70 cubic yards of contaminated snowWednesdaynight, andon Thursdayworkers focused on removing the snow with the most contamination, DEC said in its daily update. About 40 cleanup workers were at the siteThursday, and crews were alternating day and night duty, using hand tools and backhoes to remove the contaminated snow.
Still unknown is the volume of spilled material and the cause of the pipeline leak, DEC said.
Full Article:
I don't think they can.
Bush removed all the governmental controls by making them exempt from the Clean Water Act, and the agencies that used to be able to curb this have no teeth. The current Congress and Senate, bought by the oil interests certainly won't do anything to curb their disregard for human life and the environment. Most Americans don't know and don't care, as long as they have cheap gas to put in their car...
UGH.