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From: sean_q on 13 Aug 2010 13:17
How are they doing recovering the million gallons
of crude oil that got loose? Whatta mess, eh?
No wonder you could smell it from I-69. And what
an awful way to have your town memorialized, the site
of Michigan's worst oil spill.

Don't those pipelines have sensors so that a sudden,
unexplained pressure drop causes pumps to stop
and valves to close?

SQ

From: Datesfat Chicks on 13 Aug 2010 14:10
"sean_q" <no.spam(a)no.spam> wrote in message
news:J6f9o.62289$lS1.44415(a)newsfe12.iad...
> How are they doing recovering the million gallons
> of crude oil that got loose? Whatta mess, eh?
> No wonder you could smell it from I-69. And what
> an awful way to have your town memorialized, the site
> of Michigan's worst oil spill.

Enbridge (the company the owns the pipeline) is doing a fair job. There are
about 1,000 people in town to help, and they expect the efforts to go
through January.

The economic impact on Marshall is actually positive. Hotels, restaurants,
and coffee shops are doing well. The coffee shop I go to has its business
up at least 40%. Marshall only has about 7,000 people (I think), so a bunch
of people in town like that who need food and coffee really helps the
economy.

The effect has been so positive that I wouldn't be surprised if some were
plotting to create another disaster just to boost the local economy again
....

They have set up a command post at the airport (RMY) with about 4 command
trailers and so on. I see them having outdoor meetings and so on, giving
the employees their marching orders for the day.

They have purchased or made offers to purchase a lot of homes near the
river.

You can find all the details in The Battle Creek Enquirer (just Google it),
the local newspaper. The oil spill is the big news every day (at least it
was a week ago).

I don't think it will be remembered for that long. I think the cleanup will
be very effective. It really was a best case, confining it to a slow-moving
river. You have limited bank acreage (unlike the BP disaster, where the
coastline is huge).

> Don't those pipelines have sensors so that a sudden,
> unexplained pressure drop causes pumps to stop
> and valves to close?

You would think they would. Apparently the pipeline normally carries about
8 million gallons of oil per day. Clearly, when you have a rupture, the
flow rate at one end won't match the flow rate at the other end, and you
should be able to sense that within no more than perhaps 5 minutes.

I have no additional information about what safeguard didn't exist or didn't
work.

DF

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