Oil Spill Said Largest on Alaska Slope

[Bronco_Beerslug]

Yeah, lets drill more holes in Alaska for something that basically makes no difference in our consumption of crude.

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Oil Spill Said Largest on Alaska Slope
By RACHEL D'ORO, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 10, 5:15 PM ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An oil spill discovered earlier this month in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay was the largest ever on the North Slope, according to an official estimate released Friday.

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The estimated spill size of 202,000 to 267,000 gallons far surpasses the 38,000 gallons spilled in 2001, but is much less than the 11 million gallons spilled in Prince William Sound when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989.

"I can confirm it's the largest spill of crude oil on the North Slope that we have record of," said Linda Giguere with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The state has kept comprehensive records of oil spills for a decade, with more cursory record-keeping dating to the 1970s, when the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was built.

The estimate was based on a survey conducted this week at the site operated by BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. where the leak was discovered March 2.
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http://tinyurl.com/ly8ag

[gunns]

Just terribly sad and sickening.

[spdirty]

Son of a bitch...well, that'll kill ANWR.

[Spider]

Just sad , and wrong on so many levels .........No excuse for that kind of spillage ...... Hell I am just a truck driver that moves Oil Rigs for a living , and if they put any kind of container on my rig I make damn sure it is secure and wont spill a drop ......... And that is a task when you concider I run the mountians .......If I can do it , they can do it ....... short cuts = laziness ....lazyness=mistakes andaccidents ........

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

What a clusterf_ck.

:oyvey:

[Rascal]

A bad situation but not nearly as bad as Exxon or other spills.

The source of the spill was a quarter-inch hole apparently caused by corrosion inside the three-mile line that leads to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

To date, workers have recovered 52,920 gallons of crude. The effort has been slowed in recent days by extreme cold; the wind chill factor dipped to more than 70 degrees below zero. But Giguere said the spill was relatively well contained, covering less than two acres.

"It's a significant spill. The volume is large, but the footprint is small," Giguere said. "It's contained and controlled, which is the really good news. Morale is high, despite the cold temperatures and harsh conditions."



Two acres is nothing IMO when compared to the size of Alaska and that 700,000 acres of Texas went up in flames this weekend. But this sort of thing never should have happened in the first place. They need better inspections and controls for measuring flow loss.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Too bad they didn't listen.