While we are all looking to the south, look what is taking place in the far north.
Gives new meaning to 'from sea to shining sea'.
BP was warned of this leak:
Inspectors say BP's Alaska pipeline needs attention
http://alaskadispatch.com/...
On April 20, the same day BP's deep-sea well began hemorrhaging oil into the Gulf of Mexico, federal regulators sent letters to BP executives in Alaska identifying problems found at one of the company's facilities on the North Slope. Inspectors had safety concerns with the Endicott pipeline, which connects an offshore oil production island to the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline, which in turn carries oil hundreds of miles away to the port city of Valdez and on to market via tankers.
BP has invested more than a billion dollars on plans to use the island perch this year as a launching point to reach a new oil field several miles beyond Alaska's boundaries. The project -- known as Liberty -- would be a first, drilling through state waters and the underlying seabed to ultimately reach a field beneath federal waters in the outer continental shelf. The oil BP taps (provided Liberty isn't halted by angry or nervous regulators in the short-term fallout over the gulf spill) would be shipped through the existing pipeline infrastructure at Endicott, the very same pipeline the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous materials Safety Administration has some new concerns about.
When a different Alaska pipeline system owned by BP failed in 2006, causing the largest spill ever on the North Slope, the pipeline was temporarily shut down, and BP was hit with a criminal charge and $20 million in fines and ordered by PHMSA to make a series of repairs. While BP notes it has spent $500 million replacing aging, problem pipes at Prudhoe Bay, PHMSA still considers its 2006 corrective action order against the company open, according to online records.
Unlike then, the current warnings from PHMSA to BP stem from a safety inspection and not a spill. But, as in 2006, detecting and preventing corrosion -- the culprit in the 2006 leaks -- is the topic at hand.
During a visit to Prudhoe Bay last June, a safety inspector wasn't satisfied that BP was doing enough to protect the Endicott pipes from corrosion, according to the April 20 letter. BP was unable to show that it investigates the corrosive effects of the liquid it transports in Endicott's pipelines or that it's taking steps to mitigate corrosion, wrote Dennis Hinnah, a PHMSA deputy director, to Anthony Brock, of BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. The letter notes that in-line tests in 2005 and 2008 showed some pipes to have already lost up to 20 percent of their internal wall thickness.
I got the following info from http://www.breitbart.com/... but if you would rather not go there, check out http://www.google.com/...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Crude oil from the trans-Alaska pipeline spilled Tuesday into a massive tank and overflowed into a containment area, shutting down the 800-mile line until the hazard is removed.
The spill happened during a scheduled pipeline shutdown at a pump station near Fort Greely, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks.
But hey don't worry:
Some workers were evacuated. But no one was hurt and the contamination should be limited to the gravel on top of the containment area's liner, said Tom DeRuyter, on-scene spill coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
"Safety is their No. 1 objective right now," he said of Alyeska. "As soon as it is safe to move in, then they'll get the power on and try to empty that tank out. As long as everything is in that liner, it gives us time."
Alyeska responded to the spill and closed the valve before noon. As of 4 p.m., DeRuyter said, oil was still leaking from vents on the tank.
The 48-inch diameter trans-Alaska pipeline carries crude oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, where tankers pick it up and deliver it to refineries.
I have been following all the diaries on the spill in the Gulf and apparently there are many here that know much more about oil and the problems/solutions than I. Can anyone find out more info on this.