This Week in Green – Nov. 6, 2010
Out of sight, out of mind?
ProPublica reported Tuesday that many of BP’s pipelines in Alaska are severely corroded and are in danger of rupturing.
According to ProPublica, BP conducted tests on 148 of its pipelines on Alaska’s North Slope and gave those lines a failing grade. More than 80 percent of those pipe walls, which convey oil, gas and waste, were reportedly corroded and some were worn to within a few thousandths of an inch of bursting.
The story went on to report that “BP oil workers also say that the company’s fire- and gas-warning systems are unreliable, that the giant turbines that pump oil and gas through the system are aging, and that some oil and waste holding tanks are on the verge of collapse.”
Two spills in Alaska from corroded pipes in 2006 led to national scrutiny of BP’s maintenance problems. Those problems with aging equipment and outdated alarm systems apparently continue to plague the oil company.
And lest we forget, BP was at the center of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill this summer, when oil flowed for three months before it was capped