Keystone XL pipeline: reliability of remote oil-spill sensors questioned

of the new pipelines will cross aquifers and rivers which are used for drinking water and irrigation.

One concern is that some of the projects, including the Keystone XL, will carry Canadian diluted dilbit; a mixture of heavy tar sands bitumen and light liquid chemicals. 

According to an InsideClimate report of a 2012, a dilbit spill in the Kalamazoo River revealed that the dilbit was much more difficult to clean up than conventional oil because it gradually sank to the bottom of the river.

Ten days before the accident, Enbridge Inc., which runs the Michigan pipeline, told federal regulators that it could remotely shut down a rupture in eight minutes. When the line broke open, it took Enbridge seventeen hours to confirm the spill.

The leak did not receive much national attention as the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which occurred around the same time, did.

TransCanada spokesman Grady Semmens sent an e-mail to Bloomberg saying that the Keystone XL pipeline’s leak detection system will have “greater sensitivity” than what is required by law. Semmens went on to say that if the detection cannot be located within ten minutes, the pipeline will be shutdown “to immediately stop the flow of oil.”

Pipeline operators use a variety of methods to find leaks, but the remote leak detection system uses a combination of sensors, gauges, computer software, and control room technicians. It is regarded as the best method at this time as it allows for continuous monitoring along the length of the line.

Kuprewicz and other experts agree that remote sensors are good at detecting large spills and ruptures, but are not good at detecting smaller spills, which are far more common on the nation’s pipeline system.

“Leak detection systems are imperfect,” Andrew Black, president of the Association of Oil Pipelines, which represents pipeline owners and operators, told Bloomberg news. “…I think all operators will acknowledge that large ruptures are easier to detect.”

InsideClimate’sanalysis of PHMSA data shows that 76 percent of the leaks between 2002 and July 2012 involved less than thirty barrels of oil (1,260 gallons).

The Keystone XL pipeline has already experienced its share of controversies and objections, from animal rights organizations expressing concern about the pipeline’s potential effect on the local wildlife and citizens objecting to eminent domain decrees in areas where the pipeline goes through. Politicians say the pipeline increases the U.S. dependency on foreign oil – but other politicians say it would be better to be dependent on Canada – rather than Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries — for a large share of U.S. imported oil than.

The Keystone XL path will cross six states. The line’s southern leg, from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf Coast, is already under construction. The U.S. State Department is expected to decide early next year whether to approve the northern leg, which would cross the U.S.-Canada border.