After watching the horrible things happening to our proud Sioux Tribes and all their national Tribes of supportive people that have shown up to protect the water … it comes to my mind how careless and uncaring the big oil/big money monsters in their gold plated offices really are and I question the possible shoddy work that may be provided by over-worked, verbally abused crews in the field, with foremen and supervisors thumping them on their shoulders, saying, “CLAMP THAT UP THERE, get the weld started, don’t waste time with the quality check, we’ll test every other one, good enough ...”.
Who is welding the pipe joints? Who is making absolutely certain that EVERY weld is X-RAY grade qualified when complete? Where did the pipe come from? Was the steel tested to superior grades before use? Before already being buried? Since most pipe was pre-stacked outdoors for months, the covering sheath, (the colored stuff), probably protects the body of the pipe, but what coating prevented pitting and corrosion of the ends where the welding occurs? News reports of the pipeline presuming installation, stacking hundreds of pipes in Newton Iowa, showed rusted ends on the pipe months ago. If this pipe came from China, it probably has salt damage inside as well … even, in my mind, we should be told where the welding wire comes from and what type and rating …?
Since this awful raw oil is corrosive, what isolates it from the interior of the pipeline generally and especially at the inside of each weld so the corrosion can’t occur over time? Any corrosion at all can NOT be tolerated. (Means the pipeline is EXPECTED to fail ...)
If there is not a conclusive answer to my questions of permanence, what is the expected MTBF, (Mean Time Between Failures), how much time do we have before errors on any of the items above can possibly cause a failure, leading to a rupture of huge damage and pollution?
With all the hurry-up pipeline company push to get around their absolute responsibility to the safety of the Sioux Nation’s water, doing illegal digging, irresponsible damage to sacred lands, attacking men, women and children with goons and dogs, what superior quality of pipeline construction can possibly be provided by the mobile crews? When the weather is rainy, cold and snowy, creating mud, ice and such, how can these standards of absolute quality be maintained by welders and crane operators, push back bulldozers, make a route go under rivers and communication lines with absolute perfect welds, restructured ground to prevent collapse that might shift the pipe, causing catastrophic strains that could cause a rupture or worse, allow ground leaks from the river’s own hydraulic pressures?
There are so many unknowns as to quality and permanence, the upper management providing virtual whips to these field welders to get done by the end of the year would obviously lead to the possibility of shortcuts, (such as random weld tests instead of EVERY WELD, all around each joint.
Trying to weld in air conditioned tents at each joint could create delays against the weather problems as well …
Let’s hear absolute answers to these concerns on a high public level, as any unclear or ignored right answer to these concerns would be an immediate call to stop the pipeline forever.