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I haven't heard anything from my platoon of HD® Hamsters yet, so who knows?
How can anyone be sure? there were no news trucks in that shot, so the media is being kept away from that story. I mean, , they didn't even have a paltry TWO guys cleaning those snakes.
I haven't heard anything from my platoon of HD® Hamsters yet, so who knows?
That's pretty much what everyone in Arkansas is saying.http://news.yahoo.com/exxon-replacin...--finance.html
lol facebook photo server.
Chumpy: "There"s no oil in lake Conway, it's on Lake Conway"
Simple semantics, no?
Exxon's Arkansas oil spill has reached Lake Conway, says Attorney General McDaniel
http://www.katv.com/story/21889151/mcdaniel"Of course there's oil in Lake Conway," says Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.
'...
"I don't understand where this distinction is coming from, from the cove and Lake Conway. The cove is part of Lake Conway…The water is all part of one body of water.
"I think it's very fair to say that Lake Conway has not received catastrophic damage, but of course there is oil in Lake Conway."
Chumpy knows best....waaa....waaaa.......waaaaaaa
One of the tributaries? A cove? I can believe it. Where else could they put dams and booms to stop it from spreading?
You're acting like all 6700 acres are black with oil and Kim Jong Un set fire to it.
Nothing to see here, move along...
Read more: http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20...rrest-ark-oil-InsideClimate News reporter Lisa Song was threatened with arrest on Wednesday after she entered the command center for the cleanup operation in Mayflower, Ark., where a major oil pipeline spill occurred on Friday.
...
Song had tried to enter the command compound on Tuesday, but was turned away by a security guard. On Wednesday, however, a different guard was on duty and he waved her through the gate. Inside, a second person directed her to the warehouse that houses the command center.
Inside the building, Song went to a table with a sign that said "public affairs," where she was given the name and contact information for Austin Vela, the EPA spokesman at the site. Before she could get the name of a DOT representative, however, Exxon spokeswoman Kim Jordan spotted Song and told her to leave. A second person arrived and said, "You've been asked by security to leave. If you don't you'll be arrested for criminal trespass."
Song left the compound.
I said, nothing to see here, move along!
Thousands of gallons of oil have spilled from a pipeline in Texas, the third accident of its kind in only a week.
Read more: http://rt.com/usa/s -pipeline-oil-texas-409/S Pipeline, a unit of Royal Dutch S Plc, shut down their West Columbia, Texas, pipeline last Friday after electronic calculations conducted by the US National Response Center showed that upwards of 700 barrels had been lost, amounting to almost 30,000 gallons of crude oil.
By Monday, S spokespeople said inspectors found “no evidence” of an oil leak, but days later it was revealed that a breach did occur. Representatives with the US Coast Guard confirmed to Dow Jones on Thursday that roughly 50 barrels of oil spilled from a pipe near Houston, Texas and entered a waterway that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Steven Lehman said that S had dispatched clean-up crews that were working hard to correct any damage to Vince Bayou, a small waterway that runs for less than 20 miles from the Houston area into a shipping channel that opens into the Gulf.
Run pipelines way beyond their exhaustion dates (60 years for the Arkansas line), same with refineries, no or very little preventive maintenance, inspection, testing, replacement, all of which continuously reduce profits, but BigOil's only priority is increasing profits.
EPA finally release pics,there's probably 100s more
http://www.alternet.org/environment/...ter820645&t=13
Workers cleaned up oil following a spill from Exxon's Pegasus pipeline near Mayflower, Ark., Monday. (photo: GreenPeace/Reuters)
The Press and Public Are Contained
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
08 April 13
he first "Tar Sands Oil Arkansas" (published April 7) discussed a number of questions raised by the ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline that burst in Mayflower, Arkansas, on March 29, pumping tar sands oil Ð technically Wabasca Heavy crude oil Ð into a residential neighborhood for almost an hour.
Among the questions touched on in that piece were protecting the pipeline from terrorists, residents suing ExxonMobil in federal court, the nature of Wabasca Heavy tar sands oil, some effects of the spill, and the "martial law" atmosphere described by reporters trying to look at the cleanup site.
As the second week of toxic air in Mayflower begins, here are more of the questions this disaster raises and some of the current answers, subject to future refinement. A reader writes:
What is the point of origin of the leak? In front of whose house? Why no image of the hole in the ground or in the pipe? Was it corrosion, a weld failure, sabotage by cutting or explosives, or WHAT? Do we have to wait for NTSB for answers? Are ExxonMobil and their execs too big to jail?
The point of origin appears to be in the woods, behind the houses, and underground. The absence of images is unexplained.
Corrosion or weld failure seem to be two likely possibilities for the cause of the leak.
As reported so far, the spill started quietly, with no one aware of the moment it started. It's not clear how long it took for someone to become aware, but not too long, presumably.
The cir stances known so far make sabotage (or inadvertence) by cutting, explosion, backhoe, bulldozer, or other means seem unlikely.
Several of the press releases issued by the Mayflower Incident Unified Command Joint Information Center over the past several days conclude with the statement: "The cause of the spill is under investigation."
Since ExxonMobil and its employees have not yet been convicted of committing a crime, it seems premature to consider jailing them.
Why were the pipeline and the residential subdivision built so close together?
Close is a relative term. There's no suggestion so far that the subdivision was built illegally, or didn't have the right permits, or interfered with the pipeline right of way, or anything like that.
Interestingly, though, the Arkansas Times interviewed a former ExxonMobil pipeline worker who raised questions about the company's commitment to safety.
The report continued:He raised, too, a question mentioned here yesterday by another pipeline engineer about the wisdom of building new subdivisions over existing pipelines, as happened in Mayflower.Who Is the Mayflower Incident Unified Command?
Considering the potential stress of building on top of a pipeline and the high pressure used when transporting heavy crude,É the developer of Northwoods should have worked with Exxon to reroute Pegasus around the neighborhood.
Other options, he said, include replacing the section of the pipeline with newer, stronger steel or burying it deeper under the ground. But ... pipeline companies have little incentive to take costly preventive action.
Even if they get a fine the fine will be a small fraction of the cost to correct a dangerous condition, he said.
The command's letterhead includes the logos for ExxonMobil, Faulkner County, the U.S. Environmental Protection Service (EPA), and the City of Mayflower, Arkansas.
It has been hard for reporters on the scene to learn much more. Even CBS News had to stay outside the yellow tape.
Hasn't ExxonMobil been forthcoming with information and do entation relating to the Pegasus pipeline rupture?
Well, no, not really.
As a result, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has issued a subpoena for relevant do ents from ExxonMobil. The deadline for complying with the subpoena is April 10, almost two weeks after the spill. ExxonMobil has said it will comply.
Why isn't ExxonMobil more open, since we give them subsidies and tax breaks worth billions of dollars every year?
Don't start with that. This is about Mayflower, Arkansas. You can read about the tax shelter and subsidy thing somewhere else, such as American Progress.
But ExxonMobil does have to pay into the federally mandated fund for oil spill cleanups, right?
Yes and no. It's the "no" part that matters here.
With the Pegasus pipeline pumping Wabasca Heavy tar sands oil, ExxonMobil is not required to pay anything into the oil spill cleanup fund. Not a penny. Why? Because tar sands oil, according to the law
written by Congress and interpreted by our tax collectors, is not oil. So its pumpers are exempt from contributing to the cleanup fund.
If it were more traditional, lighter crude oil in the pipeline, someone would be paying 8 cents per barrel into the oil-spill liability trust fund.
Isn't tar sands oil like Wabasca Heavy more difficult and more expensive to clean up than lighter traditional oils?
Yes.
Doesn't that make a difference?
Apparently not to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which administers the cleanup fund. In a 2011 decision, the IRS exempted tar sands oil, diluted bitumen, dilbit fron the 8 cents tax per barrel (42 gallons).
Why doesn't Congress do something about that?
Seriously?
Seriously.
Congressman Ed Markey, D-Mass, has tried.
After a week, has the tar sands oil been contained?
Probably not.
Arkansas Online reported on March 29, the day of the spill, without indicating the source of the information, that "Oil that spilled into waterways from a ruptured pipeline in Mayflower has been contained."
The report continued:Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson said blockades have been set up at two different locations along a waterway that flows into Lake Conway. Those blockades are preventing the contaminated water from passing.If the oil was contained the first day, what's all the fuss about?
A dam made of dirt, wood and other building materials has been erected in the initial ditch that contains a majority of the oil, with an additional blockade set up in two culverts connected to coves that allow water into Lake Conway.
The obstructions will prevent any oil from passing through for an extended period of time, possibly days, Dodson added.
Early reports appear to have been overly optimistic.
There are more than 100 photographs on the web site for the EPA On Site Coordinator, from the period March 29-April 6. They show that the oil got into active waterways almost immediately on March 29. And at least some of the oil was also flowing on the ground and into the street, ending up going down a storm drain.
EPA image #78 shows "Sorbent boom in place at discharge point from neighborhood underneath Main Street" Ð four days after the spill, on April 2.
EPA image #90 shows "Containment boom installed in Lake Conway" on April 2.
Has tar sands oil reached Lake Conway or not?
ExxonMobil reportedly says it has not.
Grist.org reporter Suzi Parker says that Arkansas Attorney General McDaniel "reported Friday morning [April 5] that there is oil in Lake Conway despite ExxonMobil's assurances to the contrary."
The Grist report adds:"Great efforts have been taken to limit the spread of the oil to only one area of Lake Conway, which is referred to as the Cove, but the Cove and Lake Conway are hydrologically connected and are therefore one body of water," Aaron Sadler, spokesman for McDaniel, told Grist.So is it like martial law or a police state in Mayflower, or are these just more whiners and media frenzy whippers?
Meanwhile, access to the site continues to be tightly policed. According to InsideClimate, ExxonMobil threatened reporter Lisa Song with arrest on Wednesday when she entered the command center looking for government officials.
Hard to tell. Of course it could be both.
The restricted area is considerably smaller than the no-fly zone's 78 square miles.
It's not clear what happened to the press conference that was announced for April 6.
Here's the way the Arkansas Times saw it as of April 6:Public accountability remains a pressing issue. The Faulkner County judge disclaimed responsibility in refusing an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette FOI request for county records related to cleanup activities. This is on top of police-state actions by Faulkner County officials to let Exxon Mobil set rules on public access to affected areas.But didn't Exxon Mobil just win a big time safety award?
The secrecy is wrong. The delegation of authority to a private company is wrong. But Faulkner County officials are deeply in the thrall of the energy industry thanks to the Fayetteville shale play. Public interest takes a backseat.
Yes, indeed, it did.
The National Safety Council announced on April 3 that ExxonMobil had won the 2013 Green Cross for Safety, awarded at the annual fundraising dinner in Houston that night. The award was for ExxonMobile's "leadership and comprehensive commitment to safety excellence."
According to the National Safety Council press release:
ExxonMobil distinguished itself over a period of years for outstanding achievements in workplace safety, community service, environmental stewardship and responsible citizenship. It believes the best way to meet this commitment is through a capable, committed workforce as well as practices designed to enable safe, secure and environmentally responsible operations.
ExxonMobil accomplishes this through clearly defined policies and practices, and with rigorously applied management systems designed to deliver expected results.
It remains steadfast in its goal that "Nobody Gets Hurt."
Past recipients of the Green Cross for Safety medal include the Dow Chemical Company, Schneider Electric North America, Exelon Nuclear, FirstGroup, Delta Air Lines, UPS, DuPont, Liberty Mutual Group, Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler, Kenny Construction Company, Ryder System Inc., Intel Corporation and AK Steel.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Last edited by boutons_deux; 04-08-2013 at 11:43 AM.
BREAKING: Storm hits Mayflower, Arkansas site of Exxon oil spill. Contaminated water pumped into Lake Conway as citizen journalists report live.
http://www.treehugger.com/energy-dis...8Treehugger%29
WASHINGTON — Legislation to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline is rolling through the House, even as opponents launch a fresh campaign against the project.
The 1,700-mile pipeline would transport more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day from western Canada to Texas refineries. It requires a presidential permit because it crosses an international border.
It has been under government review for more than four years and has become a political football.
Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., briefed reporters ahead of a subcommittee hearing today on his legislation that would take the pipeline's fate out of President Barack Obama's hands and simply deem it approved.
Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/2013041...peline-hearing
Why Tar Sands Pipelines Guarantee Disaster
It's now been almost two weeks since ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline spill put at least 500,000 gallons of tar sands crude and contaminated water into the Arkansas community of Mayflower. Many of the evacuated families still haven't been able to return to their homes.
Sierra Club organizer Glen Hooks, who grew up about 20 miles southeast of Mayflower, in Gravel Ridge, attended a meeting for the displaced families at Mayflower High School: "I had to really stare down some ExxonMobil goons who told me to leave because it was a private meeting. I politely explained that it was a meeting in a public building about a public subject with numerous public officials in attendance, and that I was planning to stay."
Glen's soft-spoken, but he's not easily intimidated. Arkansas Business Journal named him an "Eco-Hero of the Year" for his work in helping to stop new coal-fired power plants. During the Mayflower meeting, Glen listened as an ExxonMobil executive apologized to the families and said that the focus was on safety and helping the homeowners. "The meeting then moved into a phase where ExxonMobil met with individual family members about their claims in a side room guarded by no fewer than six uniformed police officers."
Here's something that ExxonMobil probably didn't tell those homeowners: In 2010, it was fined $26,200
This is a pipeline that crosses under the Mississippi River (just one of the places ExxonMobil failed to do inspections). It's hard to say which is more shocking: That "safety first" ExxonMobil has been so cavalier about pipeline inspections or that it was fined such a pittance for its irresponsibility. By my calculation, $26,200 comes out to about .00009% of ExxonMobil's net income for 2010. Let's put that in perspective. If ExxonMobil's income were the same as the median family income in Faulkner County, Arkansas, which is where its pipeline leaked, then ExxonMobil's fine for putting the Mississippi River at risk would have been not quite four cents.
No matter how much ExxonMobil ends up spending to clean up the mess in Mayflower, the impact on its profit statement will be miniscule. Unfortunately, no amount of cash can buy peace of mind for the families whose homes were violated by tar sands. Tar sands crude is both more toxic and much harder to clean than ordinary crude. Just ask Enbridge, which has now spent almost $1 billion and two years trying to clean up the Kalamazoo River after the largest onshore oil spill in U.S. history. Enbridge has experience, too. There were 804 spills on its pipelines between 1999 and 2010. [5]
No wonder ExxonMobil is doing everything it can [6] to keep reporters and everyone else as far away from the Mayflower disaster as possible. The more the American public learns about the real cost of tar sands crude, the more opposition to the Keystone XL and other tar sands projects will increase.
Keystone XL opponents often point out that Americans assume all the risk of tar sands pipelines, while oil companies will rake in all the profit from tar sands exports. But let's be clear about the sort of risk we're talking about. If the pipeline is built, it's not a question of whether it will fail, but of when and where. We're not risking a disaster. Disaster is certain. We just don't know what the exact magnitude of the disaster will be. What if the Pegasus pipeline had failed under the Mississippi rather than in Mayflower?
Here's something we do know: The first Keystone XL disaster will be far worse than what happened in Mayflower, since TransCanada's pipeline will pump ten times as much tar sands crude as the Pegasus does.
I wish the disaster in Mayflower had never happened. Now that it has, though, I hope we heed its two biggest lessons: 1. How oil companies talk about safety has no connection to how they act. 2. The last thing you want to wake up and find in your backyard is a tar sands spill.
http://www.alternet.org/print/enviro...antee-disaster
Exxon pipeline rupture is 22 feet long, indicating immense pressure, possible criminal negligence.
Two weeks ago today, Exxon Mobil's Pegasus pipeline carrying diluted bitumen from Canada ruptured catastrophically, creating a 22-foot long gash that unleashed hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and toxic chemical diluents into the Central Arkansas town of Mayflower. Since then, the local media has faced strong intimidation from Exxon, local residents have become sick from the toxic fumes, a severe thunderstorm threatened cleanup efforts, leading officials to release contaminated water into Lake Conway and the Attorney General of Arkansas has launched an investigation, as a number of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of residents.
“I think when people found out that there was a rupture and there was a 65-year-old pipeline, I think that almost everybody assumed that there was some small crack due to age,” he told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. “The rupture was 22 feet long. Twenty-two feet is not something one would think would happen gradually. So now we’re starting to ask all new questions.”
http://www.treehugger.com/energy-dis...8Treehugger%29
LOL...
A rupture like that can happen at once. What's the author of this article smoking?
who said it didn't rupture all at once?
"Twenty-two feet is not something one would think would happen gradually" implying it was abrupt not gradual rupture.
LOL... And they are an expert at...
I have seen multiple pipes and tubing rupture. I can say that it is very common to rupture like that, all at once.
Think of tearing cloth. Once you get it started, the rest goes very easy. In the case of pipes and tubes, it continues till the pressure is reduced. that 22' could have happened in under a second, easily.
another BigNastyOil saves money and causes a disaster
Chevron Report Details Failures That Led To Richmond Refinery Fire
Corrosion that damaged a steel pipe led to a disastrous fire at Chevron’s Richmond refinery last August, oil company officials confirmed in a report released Friday.
The investigation report was submitted to Contra Costa Health Services on the Aug. 6 refinery fire that sent a toxic plume of smoke into the air and some 15,000 people to hospitals complaining of breathing problems.
In the report, Chevron representatives said that damage to the crude oil pipe was not appropriately do ented after inspections in 2002 and 2011.
“We have identified what went wrong and are taking steps to prevent a similar incident in the future,” Nigel Hearne, the refinery’s general manager, said in a statement.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/201...refinery-fire/
Oil Lake...
Big Oil is looking out for me, so I'm not really worried.
They wouldn't hurt the environment for money -- this, we know.
cut all safety corners,
ignore warnings
no preventative maintenance and no "serious" inspections
run everything till it blows up
We're BigNastyOil, don't bother to trust us, we're untouchable, we own the regulators and enforcers, so GFY, because we will certainly you
Last edited by boutons_deux; 04-16-2013 at 06:13 AM.
Silver Linings Playbook: Exxon Says Wildlife Hit By Arkansas Spill Were Mostly ‘Reptiles, Primarily Venomous Snakes’
Oily snakes — or snake oil?
Sure, you thought nothing good could come from ExxonMobil’s pipeline spill of some 200,000 gallons into the residential streets of Mayflower, Arkansas. After all, it was “low-quality Wabasca Heavy crude oil from Alberta.” And a technicality has spared Exxon from having to pay any money into the fund that will be covering most of the clean up costs — a 1980 law ensures that diluted bitumen is not classified as oil.
But ExxonMobil reports from the Mayflower Incident Unified Command Joint Information Center that even this cloud of oil has a silver lining:
The majority of the impacted wildlife has been reptiles, primarily venomous snakes.
Strangely, HuffPost reports, “According to its Facebook page, the Helping Arkansas Wild Kritters (HAWK) Center, which has worked to help scores of animals hurt by the March 29 spill, has not rescued any venomous snakes, but has cared for many birds.”
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201...nomous-snakes/
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