too bad virtually all that failed reclamation dates from the early 20th century - before govt put any real laws in place specifying what clean up nees to be done when the mining is over! Now mining companies are expected to provide a real plan and actual finances explaining how they will eventually clean up their messes! It is so called orphan mines and oil wells that are the problem- they were opened up in the bad old days when you could dig a huge hole and then walk away at no cost! Lie-berals have wasted so much money on gravy for hogs they have none left for cleaning up the environment!
The laws are much tougher and more effective now- its just too bad that lie-berals are more focussed on supplying gravy to their civil service union hog allies and buying votes from the tens of thousands of illegals lie-berals have invited here- just in time for the blanket amnesty that lie-berals will issue just in time for the 2019 federal election in which the illegals will be expected to show their gratitude by voting lie-beral and enabling our idiot boy justin to cling to power at any price!
and how sloppy are lie-berals and their lazy hog allies when it comes to enforcing environmental laws? Consider this:
here is an article illustrating the real level of lie-beral interest in environmental issues and their lack of commitment to logical solutions to long term problems because sensible and economical solutions do not give them the gravy they think they are entitled to! With some comments of my own in brackets):
50-year-old leaking pipeline has no record of provincial inspections
dan healing, the canadian press. First posted: Thursday, january 26, 2017 09:05 pm est | updated: Thursday, january 26, 2017 09:17 pm est
a pipeline owned by tundra energy spilled approximately 200,000 litres (200 cubic metres) of oil on farmland owned by the ocean man first nation near stoughton, sask. The leak was discovered on jan. 20, 2016.
(with such a crap maintenance records as this it is no wonder that many cdns are opposed to pipelines!)
calgary — a pipeline that leaked 200,000 litres of oil into a frozen pond in the southeast corner of the saskatchewan is nearly 50 years old and there’s no record of it ever being inspected by provincial authorities, the government said thursday.
(one has to wonder if tundra energy ever did maintenance checks on their pipe? Or if we can trust and believe any records they may produce at an inquiry?)
the spill on the ocean man first nation was discovered and reported last friday but initially neither the government nor suspected owner tundra energy marketing ltd. Of calgary said they knew for sure where the oil had come from.
An excavation wednesday identified the two-kilometre pipe as belonging to tundra.
(great-at first, tundra denies even owning the pipe line! As the line is 50 years old- we have to assume those who installed it are now long retired and none of the new kids knew where the line ran?)
on thursday, doug macknight, assistant deputy minister of economy, said a small hole on top of the four-inch-diameter pipe on a weld connecting two segments had been found and the damaged portion removed for further analysis and metallurgic testing.
He said records don’t show any incidents since the oil gathering line was built in 1968 but it wasn’t actually licensed until 2014 by then-owner enbridge income fund holdings. Licences weren’t previously required for lines shorter than 15 kilometres.
“we have no record of inspecting it since we licensed it retroactively in 2014, so prior to that it was unlicensed and we just don’t have any record as to whether it was inspected,” macknight said.
(one might think that an aging line that had never previously been inspected might just benefit from an assessment of its condition shortly after govt became involved and answerable for its condition? But no- civil service hogs are far too lazy to bother with such a logical approach to their job!)
“the companies are required to inspect these pipes on an ongoing basis, part of their licensing requirements.”
tundra is required to file an initial incident report within the next few days and a detailed incident report within 90 days giving its assessment of cause, the province said in a statement.
It said a provincial investigation will examine whether the operator met requirements for inspections, why the leak detection system failed, if the age of the pipeline was a factor and what the root cause of the leak was.
(seems to me the root cause of the failure was total indifference- over a long period of time- by all who ought to have been interested in the condition of the pipe!)
macknight said the industry is required to update leak detection systems to meet standards as they change.
(if tundra is not even sure it was their pipe one has to suspect that no updated leak detection system was ever installed! More sloppy over sight by lazy hogs! They can collect their entitlements quickly enough but routine duty eludes them!)
the pipeline forms part of the southeast saskatchewan crude oil gathering system most recently operated by calgary-based enbridge.
It was apparently included in a $1-billion deal by enbridge late last year to sell pipelines and truck terminals to tundra, a subsidiary of privately owned james richardson & sons of winnipeg. Officials from tundra did not return phone calls on thursday.
(and here is a second view of the pipeline mess):
Human error a growing factor in pipeline leaks.
3/15. Canadian press. Ian bickis.
Calgary - human error — whether it's burying a pipeline too shallow or not fastening bolts tight enough— is increasingly a factor contributing to pipeline leaks, federal data suggests.
Figures compiled by the national energy board show that in the past three years, incorrect operation — which covers everything from failing to follow procedures to using equipment improperly — has caused an average of 20 leaks per year. That's up from an average of four annually in the previous six years.
(in other words- taking short cuts to save cost is becoming very popular with pipe line owners! And govt is not pressuring them on the issue! Just an example of more lazy hogs!)
"it's both probably one of the most difficult things for an organization to deal with, but also the most important," said mark fleming, a professor of safety culture at saint mary's university in halifax.
Fleming said operators have made improvements in safety practices, but to achieve the higher levels of safety required by other industries such as the airline or nuclear power sectors would require extreme attention to detail.
What may seem inconsequential at first can later contribute to a disaster, fleming said.
"it's like a ball balancing on the top of a pyramid," he said.
"safety, particularly very high levels of safety, requires constant attention and effort. And the tendency is for it to degrade."
pipelines installed in the u.s. In the past five years have the highest rate of failure of any built since the 1920s, and human error is partially to blame, said carl weimer, executive director of the washington-based pipeline safety trust.
(in other words, as our technology and engineering skill grows- we have more failures due to increasingly sloppy work and govt failure to regulate installers!)
"a lot of new pipelines being put in the ground just aren't being installed right, or things don't get tightened up quite enough, so within the first year or two things fail," said weimer.
The consequences of the improper management of pipelines have come to bear in several spills in recent years, resulting in oil coursing down rivers, gushing onto city streets and contaminating many hectares of canadian wilderness.
Alberta energy regulator investigations into plains midstream canada, for one, found that the company hadn't inspected its pipelines frequently or thoroughly enough, did a poor job of managing the ground around its pipelines and hadn't properly trained control room staff.
A subsequent audit found the company had improved its safety practices, but not before those failures helped contribute to a 4.5-million litre oil spill in 2011 near peace river, followed by a 463,000-litre oil leak into the red deer river a year later.
In 2015, a nexen energy pipeline south of fort mcmurray, alta. Burst, spilling about five million litres of emulsion including about 1.65 million litres of oil near its long lake oilsands operation. The aer's investigation into the incident continues, but nexen's preliminary conclusion was that the pipeline design was incompatible with the ground conditions, and wasn't installed properly.
"there's been a lot of learnings in our industry that have resulted from some very unfortunate incidents," said patrick smyth, vice-president of safety and engineering at the canadian energy pipeline association.
Smyth said cepa, which represents pipeline companies like transcanada and plains midstream, have improved their safety practices in recent years.
He points to the fact that cepa members spilled only about 2,500 litres of oil in 2015, with companies implementing stricter safety practices and using better inspection tools to prevent leaks.
(that`s nice- bad press and embarrassed govt have gotten an temporary improvement in safety standards!)
© provided by thecanadianpress.com
but even as companies make improvements on safety, fleming said getting pipelines towards the higher safety standards of industries like airlines will likely require significant financial sacrifice.
"to be able to do that, you need to have a very cautious approach to doing work, and that's something that's hard financially," said fleming. "it does have some cost implications that we are often very uncomfortable talking about."
(will lie-beral govt pressure these companies to work to a higher standard when they know that much of the company stock is held by civil service hogs who will not appreciate lie-berals cutting into their dividends? An angry hog does not vote lie-beral and large scale hog support is critical for lie-berals who wish to cling to power at any price!)
