Sprat 10 - Ruptured Pipelines
By James Donahue
Item number ten on the Jack Sprat list of concerns was "ruptured pipelines." We have heard of a few gas and oil pipeline breaks but until we began researching this issue, we did not realize just how severe this problem has become all over the United States.
When we first conducted this study in 2015 there had been 26 major breaks recorded and resulting in destructive and in some cases deadly spills of crude oil natural gas, propane gas, gasoline and even jet fuel. Often explosion and fires occurred, large areas of property and homes were destroyed, towns evacuated, and construction workers killed or injured.
There were 25 such events in 2014, 36 in 2013, 43 in 2012, 29 major line breaks in 2011 and 30 in 2010. Some of these involved factory explosions and extensive property and environmental damage.
From more current data: since 1986 there were nearly 8,000 incidents, counting nearly 300 per year, and resulting in over 500 deaths, 2,300 injuries and nearly $7 billion in damage.
From 2010 to 2016 -- Gas companies reported 35 explosions and 32 ignitions at their transmission pipelines, according to federal records. The explosions killed 17 people and injured 86.
A major blast when an Enbridge natural gas pipeline ruptured on August 1, 2019, in Lincoln County, Kentucky caused a massive explosion left 1 person dead and 5 hospitalized.
So what is causing these breaks, which in most instances cause major local disasters. Some of the breaks, like the Enbridge Energy pipeline rupture in 2010 that spilled over 800,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Michigan, caused extreme ecological damage.
A fractured Pacific Gas & Electric Co. natural gas line was responsible for an explosion and fire in San Bruno, a suburb of San Francisco, California, in 2010 that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. A second break in the same area this year was caused by a construction crew. The problem was contained before it caused another explosion, but numerous homes were evacuated, just in case.
The list of pipeline breaks gets really long if we go back a few years. It is small wonder that so many residents across the United States were opposed to the construction of that controversial Trans-Canada Keystone Pipeline to carry thick, bitumen crude from Canadian shale south across the central United States to the Texas gulf coast.
So what is causing all of these pipeline breaks, explosions and fires? A lot of it is blamed on the aging infrastructure. But many of the breaks occurred on relatively recent pipelines and were obviously the result of poor construction work. And then there has been the problem of new construction work occurring over buried and often unmarked pipelines.
It all appears directly linked to the nation’s (and world’s) growing demand for carbon-based fuels and the need for more and more pipelines to move these materials to processing and distribution centers where they can be sold to consumers. Efforts by the Biden Administration to have motorists and power plants switch to natural heat sources have apparently been blocked by a recent Supreme Court ruling preventing controls on oil and gas company drills for more and more of these fuels.
Yes Mr. Sprat, you are correct. The increase in pipeline fractures is a growing problem and hidden danger to all of us. Many of us are not aware of dangerous pipelines lying directly under our yards or the roads in front of our homes.
By James Donahue
Item number ten on the Jack Sprat list of concerns was "ruptured pipelines." We have heard of a few gas and oil pipeline breaks but until we began researching this issue, we did not realize just how severe this problem has become all over the United States.
When we first conducted this study in 2015 there had been 26 major breaks recorded and resulting in destructive and in some cases deadly spills of crude oil natural gas, propane gas, gasoline and even jet fuel. Often explosion and fires occurred, large areas of property and homes were destroyed, towns evacuated, and construction workers killed or injured.
There were 25 such events in 2014, 36 in 2013, 43 in 2012, 29 major line breaks in 2011 and 30 in 2010. Some of these involved factory explosions and extensive property and environmental damage.
From more current data: since 1986 there were nearly 8,000 incidents, counting nearly 300 per year, and resulting in over 500 deaths, 2,300 injuries and nearly $7 billion in damage.
From 2010 to 2016 -- Gas companies reported 35 explosions and 32 ignitions at their transmission pipelines, according to federal records. The explosions killed 17 people and injured 86.
A major blast when an Enbridge natural gas pipeline ruptured on August 1, 2019, in Lincoln County, Kentucky caused a massive explosion left 1 person dead and 5 hospitalized.
So what is causing these breaks, which in most instances cause major local disasters. Some of the breaks, like the Enbridge Energy pipeline rupture in 2010 that spilled over 800,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Michigan, caused extreme ecological damage.
A fractured Pacific Gas & Electric Co. natural gas line was responsible for an explosion and fire in San Bruno, a suburb of San Francisco, California, in 2010 that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. A second break in the same area this year was caused by a construction crew. The problem was contained before it caused another explosion, but numerous homes were evacuated, just in case.
The list of pipeline breaks gets really long if we go back a few years. It is small wonder that so many residents across the United States were opposed to the construction of that controversial Trans-Canada Keystone Pipeline to carry thick, bitumen crude from Canadian shale south across the central United States to the Texas gulf coast.
So what is causing all of these pipeline breaks, explosions and fires? A lot of it is blamed on the aging infrastructure. But many of the breaks occurred on relatively recent pipelines and were obviously the result of poor construction work. And then there has been the problem of new construction work occurring over buried and often unmarked pipelines.
It all appears directly linked to the nation’s (and world’s) growing demand for carbon-based fuels and the need for more and more pipelines to move these materials to processing and distribution centers where they can be sold to consumers. Efforts by the Biden Administration to have motorists and power plants switch to natural heat sources have apparently been blocked by a recent Supreme Court ruling preventing controls on oil and gas company drills for more and more of these fuels.
Yes Mr. Sprat, you are correct. The increase in pipeline fractures is a growing problem and hidden danger to all of us. Many of us are not aware of dangerous pipelines lying directly under our yards or the roads in front of our homes.