The Dakota Access Pipeline is leaking, even before opening

The Dakota Access Pipeline is leaking, even before opening

“We told you so”. It’s not a nice thing to say but in the case of the Dakota Access pipeline is right. The pipeline, firmly supported by US President Donald Trump, has already leaked 300 litres of crude oil, despite it hasn’t yet become operational. The spill is allegedly due to a damaged pump and took place on 4 April in Spink County, 160 kilometres from Lake Oahe, where most of local communities’ demonstrations were organised. The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources published on its website some figures of the leaking but didn’t released any statements about the spill.

There’s no danger according to experts

The 3.8 billion-dollar pipeline has a length of 1,886 kilometres and has been designed to transport oil from bakken fields in North Dakota to Illinois, passing through South Dakota and Iowa. It is estimated to become operational on 1 June and will have a capacity of 470,000 oil barrels per day. Builders and experts say there’s no danger linked to the realisation and functioning of the work.

“We realize Dakota Access gets a lot of attention. We also try to treat all of our spills in a consistent manner. We treated this as we would treat any other 84-gallon oil spill,” said Brian Walsh, an environmental scientist with the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. “The oil was contained on site by a plastic liner and containment walls and quickly cleaned up. Some oil-contaminated gravel will be disposed of at an area landfill”. The pipeline builder Energy Transfer Partners claims the pipeline is safe and that the spill occurred within in a containment area. Also, authorities said that no other spills have been detected along the pipeline in South Dakota.

Source: Lifegate

Date: June 2017

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Tags assigned to this article:
environmentoilpollutionUnited States

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