April 18, 2001

1:59 PM

Break in pipeline causes 92,400 gallons of "processed water" to leak into the Alaskan tundra.According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), this is "the biggest spill of industrial material onto the tundra in recent years." The hole in the pipeline was discovered last Sunday.
posted by tamim (2 comments total)

"less than an acre." Sounds like Phillips has a pretty good record.
posted by netbros at 3:05 PM on April 18, 2001

No matter how quickly these problems are detected and addressed, the fact of the matter is that it's more damage than would have happened if we hadn't been running a pipe through that area in the first place. No matter how confident we are that we can pump oil out of a remote area safely, there will always be problems. This is a lesson for anyone who's in favor of exploring for oil in Alaska or any other protected area.
posted by owen at 10:40 AM on April 19, 2001