The pipeline protesters have been vindicated

A ruptured pipeline has spilled more than 176,000 gallons of crude oil into a hillside and a Little Missouri River tributary about 150 miles west of Cannon Ball, N.D., where thousands of activists have spent months fighting construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, state officials said Monday.

The pipeline protesters have been vindicated

The spill was reported on Dec. 5th. And this was just a little pipeline, about 1000 barrels per day.

Those pipeline protesters had a point. Spills are not just a theoretical concern; they do happen.

The timing of this random leak seems most suspicious. I think there should be an investigation on the leak and some waiting for the science and forensics happens before a conclusion is drawn.

originally posted by: tkwasny
The timing of this random leak seems most suspicious. I think there should be an investigation on the leak and some waiting for the science and forensics happens before a conclusion is drawn.

?

These things leak. Its what they do. They require regular maintenance. but the amount of product they can move makes it financially more feasible.

a reply to: tkwasny

The protestors don't need to sabotage a pipeline, they mess up and leak all on their own.

build more pipelines especially thru sacred native land and near their water source!

a reply to: tkwasny

I am with you, that an investigation should be done. And the ones who caused the spill should be brought to justice, be it neglicence of the operators or, let's say 'outside forces'.

Your post implies, that it could be that the spill was caused deliberately to further the protesters agenda. We don't know yet and yes theoretically it could be possible.

However, either way. The conclusion, that pipelines do leak is solid.

Every group with any political (or other) background could cause such a spill.
And the ground/water will be wasted. Not to mention all the 'usual' causes for an oil pipeline spill.

I got news. the pipeline will still be built. this was just temporary. They didnt win anything.

The pipeline is down river of their water. The Keystone is starting to warm up I have a friend who built the controls for it and they are firing everything up and testing to confirm they are ready to ship. The stuff has been in the Packard plant in South Bend for 4 years just waiting.

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

Question -

Is the leak a confirmed leak or is there signs of it being sabotaged? I ask because it seems highly coincidental for this to happen where it did with whats foing on.

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

Hold on, let me get this straight.

So a relatively quick drive (which uses oil in both lubrication and fuel...and tires...and all of the rubber and plastics...) away from where thousands of protestors have (some of them, anyway) been conducting themselves like toddlers throwing tantrums with no regard for the law or people's safety, we suddenly have a leak of crude oil (the exact substance that will flow through the pipeline against which they're protesting) into a tributary that will eventually make it into the river who's crossing of the protested pipeline is the main focus of their protest?

Let's approach this relatively logically, shall we? (Warning: Math Ahead)

This site has a map of all of the crude-oil spill from 2010-2015. It says that "over 1,000" spills have occurred from crude-oil pipelines, resulting in a total of "over 7-million gallons" of spilled crude oil. So, we'll call it 1,050 spills and 7,050,000 gallons spilled. That averages roughly 6,700 gallons per spill.

Now, take into account that our nation has over 2.5-million miles of crude-oil pipeline, with about 1,050 spills over these noted five years, and we're looking at an average of roughly one spill every 2,400 miles. And, given that this is over a five-year, period, let's average that out to being one spill every 11,900 miles annually.

Now, if we take the numbers for an average year, we're looking at roughly 210 spills per year, each spilling 6,700 gallons--that's roughly 1.4-million gallons per year, dispersed across the nation at 11,900-mile intervals over all of our pipelines.

This site states that:

Interstate petroleum pipelines annually transport 11.3 billion barrels of product (31 million barrels per day), of which 52% is crude oil; the remaining is refined product.

So, with that in mind, 52% of 11.3-billion equates to roughly 5.9-billion gallons of crude oil that travels through the pipelines annually. Looking at previously noted information, it is determined that roughly 1.4-million gallons are spilled annually. Since I'm a huge fan of percentages over simple numbers, let's look at the percentage of the crude oil that gets spilled on an annual basis in America: We are looking at 0.024% of the oil that travels through our country gets spilled/leaked every year, give or take. That is 24-one-hundredths-of-one-percent.

Taking that miniscule percentage into account, we must also let it sink in that there are (on average) 210 spills annually, which is roughly 0.58 spills per day. So, given that so many spills happen annually, and that they happen every 11,900 miles or so, it must be an absolute aligning of every galaxy in the universe for this to have happened where and when it did. Seriously--let all of that sink in.

Now, I walked us through all of that math in order to get to this point: WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT THIS RECENT SPILL, SO CLOSE TO THE PROTEST, IS MERE COINCIDENCE?

I guess that time will tell if it was sabotage or not, but looking at it through the eyes of probability, I'm going to say that this wasn't a 'normal' oil spill. And even if it wasn't sabotage, there is no vindication for the protestors, because the odds that a spill will ever happen near or on their land and affect their drinking water are so tiny that they might as well be statistical anomalies and not given so much consideration as to force a previously approved project to be rerouted.

originally posted by: JakeR777
a reply to: tkwasny

The protestors don't need to sabotage a pipeline, they mess up and leak all on their own.

build more pipelines especially thru sacred native land and near their water source!

Statistically and relatively speaking, they don't leak very much oil, and they don't leak/spill very often.

And, the pipeline isn't going through sacred native land--it's not even going through their reservation at all.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Well, we could also speculate, then, that it is possible for the leak to have been caused by the big oil or an agent of them so that they could start a narrative of how this pipeline has better construction and is of a far superior design etc... to maybe push the agenda of needing it now since the other is likely to continue failing.


Just saying, if it was not truly coincidental, it could still be either side pushing agendas.

a reply to: evc1shop

I agree with that, too, but the protestors would have little-to-nothing to lose in causing this. The company pushing the oil through their own pipeline would lose a lot of money and have to deal with the ensuing environmental clean-up and negative press over the situation.

So, again, looking at it through the eyes of probability...

a reply to: SlapMonkey

I know, just trying to be open and objective but that last line of yours got me as I was speed reading and misread it as
"So, again, looking at it through the eyes of profitability... " so true!


Anyhow, I actually hope it was a coincidental failure but the proximity to the protests weighs heavily in favor of outside influences at work... whose, I can not say with certainty right now.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Except if it was a staged guilt trip to avoid losing the entire pipeline.

Leaks happen. Even the oil companies and the pipeline operators know that leaks happen. They do not pretend to say otherwise.

However, that doesn't mean that a pipeline should not necessarily be built. I mean, I use oil products every day; it would be hypocritical of me to say that oil pipelines should never be built because there might be a spill.

originally posted by: LAkadian
a reply to: SlapMonkey

Except if it was a staged guilt trip to avoid losing the entire pipeline.

Not following you on this one--again, like I said, the company has MUCH more to lose in staging something like this than do some protestors.

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

I hope that I am just paranoid,but as we have seen that most "hate crimes" are actually committed by the ones pretending to be discriminated against-how do we know that the "locals" that stumbled upon the leak weren't actually protesters themselves and responsible for it? (sabotage)

With as much money as the oil companies make-you would think that there would be a camera on every square inch of the pipeline.At the very least for safety reasons.

But at the same time,kind of like with how the media/law enforcement have started hiding the racial identity of terrorists (if they are anything other than a white male)-would we ever be allowed to find out if they were native americans?

Or-are we even allowed to ask that question,lol?

So how many of them use petroleum biprodcts everyday?

You know... The Blood of the Uzg. Earth for the non-initiated.

a reply to: Lysergic

To be fair, i eat pork quite a bit. But i don't want to slaughter and store it in the linen closet.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Right.Native american = diplomatic immunity.