The Colonial pipeline #1 carries 1.3 million barrels a day of refined products from the Gulf Coast up to Washington DC. Its companion pipeline #2 normally carries diesel fuel, although either pipeline can carry any product – switching from a low quality product to a highly refined product creates a period of time where the products comingle requiring rework of the contaminated product, so the pipeline schedules products to batch similar products as much as possible. Jet fuel is another major product shipped through the pipeline.
The leak was discovered by a state of Alabama coal mine inspector. About 8000 barrels of gasoline was present in retention ponds where waste from the mining operations are kept out of the rivers. None of the gasoline made it to a river and the nearest house is over two miles away. Since gasoline evaporates very quickly, there is no long term problem.
Colonial is shifting the gasoline to the undamaged pipeline #2 and switching the gasoline back in Atlanta to pipeline #1, but it takes several days to travel from Houston to Atlanta. This is not the first time a pipeline has leaked – there are contractors with the tools and skills to know what to do. They have plugged the pipeline on either end of the leak and pumping out the gasoline in the leaking segment. The 8,000 barrels of gasoline is about 8 minutes worth of product.
Birmingham AL was the location of iron smelting operations prior to the Civil War and a competitive threat to smelters in Pittsburgh. That’s why the area has coal mines. Birmingham was the name given during Reconstruction, named after the iron and steel smelting city in England. Destruction of the smelting operations in Alabama was high on the list of objectives of the Union Army. Once war started, the limited industrial capacity of the south was essential to do things like make iron clad boats and repair railroads.
http://www.civilwartraveler.com/WEST/AL/iron.html
Slavery of black men in coal mines until 1928
The proximity to a mine suggests causation, although nobody has said that yet – either the miners striking the pipeline or an underground collapse of a shaft shifting the ground.
Distribution of gasoline will be disrupted for a few days. While it is a very important pipeline, there are other pipelines and other methods of transport, including bringing gasoline from Europe. Despite the lack of any damage to any people or the environnent, look for Democrats to use this as evidence of why we should stop using pipelines, or fossil fuels more generally.
There are 228 million barrels of gasoline in inventory in the United States. This pipeline carries 1.3 million barrels a day, and has been rerouted to a parallel pipeline. News outlets are trying their best to stampede the public into believing there will be a gasoline shortage.
There is no environmental damage. The EPA is on the scene and concurs there is no threat to drinking water
Wholesale gasoline prices dropped 1.3 cents a gallon today.
Colonial is building a temporary bypass pipeline and expects a return to service next week. Products flow through the pipeline at 3 to 5 mph, taking about 18 days to travel from Houston to New York. Colonial operates tank farms along the route – one is located in Greensboro – gasoline stations that do run out of gasoline probably buy on the spot market without long term contracts and might have to have a tanker drive for an extra hour. Since prices will fall back down soon, they’re not going to pay a wholesale premium. Pipeline #2 was switched to gasoline – at 3-5 mph, the gasoline is already flowing into the NC tank farms. The TV stations are trying really hard to induce panic buying.
Kinder Morgan operates a refined products pipeline following roughly the same path as the Colonial pipeline
http://www.kindermorgan.com/content/docs/Products_Pipelines_Asset_Map.pdf
The Plantation Pipeline was constructed in the 1940s for national security to protect the shipping of refined oil products. Several terminals are in fact connected to both pipelines, allowing shipments to transfer between pipelines. The plantation pipeline has a capacity of 700,000 barrels a day, about 1/4th the capacity of the Colonial Pipeline
The Colonial pipeline has been at full capacity for three years
http://www.reuters.com/article/colonial-pipeline-linespace-idUSL1N0V61PA20150206
Pictures of the temporary bypass pipeline
https://helena.colonialresponse.com/imagesvideo/
People who build pipelines for a living aren’t having to create some totally abstract solution. Now that the pipeline is back at full capacity, they can dig up the section with the leak and send it out for independent analysis. No gasoline leaked beyond the containment pond. The gasoline on the surface was skimmed off and absorbent materials soaked up the small amount on the edge of the pond. In a month or two nobody will even remember it happened, except the Saudis.
Subcontractors working on the pipeline in the area of the leak have triggered an explosion and fire, shutting down the entire pipeline for an unknown period.
http://www.ajc.com/news/major-fire-erupts-near-alabama-pipeline/sk1rZu2WaTwj0lpKyBXpGL/
The Colonial pipeline resumed today. When the pipeline stops, there is two weeks of gasoline in the pipeline that can either be left in the pipeline or pumped out. It is better to leave it in place as dropping the pressure could cause failure of the pipeline – so it doesn’t take two weeks for New York to get new gasoline, only a day or two while the pipeline is restarted.