batgirl
03-08-2006, 07:36 AM
Have you guys heard anything about this?
DRILLING CAUSES MAJOR CRUDE OIL SPILL NEAR ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE -- POTENTIALLY LARGEST IN ALASKA NORTH SLOPE HISTORY
On Thursday, March 2, a BP oil operator discovered signs of an oil spill at a caribou migration site on the snow-covered tundra of Alaska’s North Slope. Three days later, response workers finally uncovered the source of the spill – a breach in an oil transit pipeline feeding into the larger trans-Alaska oil pipeline infrastructure stretching some 800 miles across the state.
Clean-up crews have already vacuumed up more than 50,000 gallons of crude oil and melted snow off the delicate tundra, but at least one report from an industry expert has indicated that up to 798,000 gallons could be unaccounted for, possibly making this the largest crude oil spill in the history of the North Slope, and second in Alaska only to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Oil is still dripping from the breached pipeline and the full extent of the damage and affected acreage are unknown. The multi-agency spill response team will attempt to come up with an estimated spill volume in the next two days.
This weekend’s accident is just one in a long history of substantial spills seen on Alaska’s fragile North Slope since development began there. In fact, despite industry hype about the safety of development and new technology, the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and Trans-Alaska Pipeline have caused an average of 504 spills annually on the North Slope since 1996, according to the Alaska’s own Department of Environmental Conservation. Past spills have included a 300,000 gallon crude oil spill from the Trans-Alaska pipeline that was detected as far as 166 miles away; a 110,000 gallon crude oil spill caused by a bulldozer which created a geyser that spewed oil over 20 acres of tundra wetlands; the infamous 285,000 gallons of crude oil that spilled into the boreal forest after a local hunter shot the pipeline with a high powered rifle; and the disastrous 675,000 gallons that were leaked after a saboteur exploded a two inch hole in the pipeline just a few miles north of Fairbanks.
http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2006-03-07.asp
and if the sierra slub is "too biased" for you
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11642801/
I haven't heard anything about this until this morning. I wonder if its lack of publicity has anything to do with the 2007 budget (which might be voted on today) that, of course, includes "environmentally gentle " oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge...
DRILLING CAUSES MAJOR CRUDE OIL SPILL NEAR ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE -- POTENTIALLY LARGEST IN ALASKA NORTH SLOPE HISTORY
On Thursday, March 2, a BP oil operator discovered signs of an oil spill at a caribou migration site on the snow-covered tundra of Alaska’s North Slope. Three days later, response workers finally uncovered the source of the spill – a breach in an oil transit pipeline feeding into the larger trans-Alaska oil pipeline infrastructure stretching some 800 miles across the state.
Clean-up crews have already vacuumed up more than 50,000 gallons of crude oil and melted snow off the delicate tundra, but at least one report from an industry expert has indicated that up to 798,000 gallons could be unaccounted for, possibly making this the largest crude oil spill in the history of the North Slope, and second in Alaska only to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Oil is still dripping from the breached pipeline and the full extent of the damage and affected acreage are unknown. The multi-agency spill response team will attempt to come up with an estimated spill volume in the next two days.
This weekend’s accident is just one in a long history of substantial spills seen on Alaska’s fragile North Slope since development began there. In fact, despite industry hype about the safety of development and new technology, the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and Trans-Alaska Pipeline have caused an average of 504 spills annually on the North Slope since 1996, according to the Alaska’s own Department of Environmental Conservation. Past spills have included a 300,000 gallon crude oil spill from the Trans-Alaska pipeline that was detected as far as 166 miles away; a 110,000 gallon crude oil spill caused by a bulldozer which created a geyser that spewed oil over 20 acres of tundra wetlands; the infamous 285,000 gallons of crude oil that spilled into the boreal forest after a local hunter shot the pipeline with a high powered rifle; and the disastrous 675,000 gallons that were leaked after a saboteur exploded a two inch hole in the pipeline just a few miles north of Fairbanks.
http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2006-03-07.asp
and if the sierra slub is "too biased" for you
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11642801/
I haven't heard anything about this until this morning. I wonder if its lack of publicity has anything to do with the 2007 budget (which might be voted on today) that, of course, includes "environmentally gentle " oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge...