Listen
The cost of the AIDS crisis in India is complicated by misunderstanding about how HIV is spread.
Hurricanes and Oil Pipelines
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, September 2, 2008.
listen:
Officials in the Gulf Coast are assessing damage left by Hurricane Gustav yesterday. Officials were bracing for a repeat of the epic failure of the levy system following Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
Though the levies and flood walls held up this time, Gustav still left plenty of destruction in its wake. Mayor Ray Nagin is asking evacuated residents to stay put while crews work to restore power to the 80,000-plus homes that lost electricity. And Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is asking the federal government to open up its strategic oil reserve to fuel recovery efforts and to fill the tanks of returning citizens. Jindal says it could be days before oil companies can assess the damage to their operations in the Gulf.
The region handles about 25 percent of the nation’s domestic oil production and about 15 percent of its natural gas output. Any harm to that infrastructure will affect oil prices nationwide. But our next guest says it’s not just the rigs and refineries we have to worry about - it’s the pipelines that pump the product from the Gulf to the mainland that cause more concern. After Hurricane Katrina, about 8 million gallons of oil were lost through the pipes - compare that to 11 million gallons after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Nancy Kinner is co-director of the Coastal Response Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, where she’s also professor of civil and environmental engineering. She joins Word of Mouth to discuss cleaning up the oil damage caused by hurricanes.
(Photo by vphill)
Search us
Podcast
Word of Mouth is on the move! Sign up for our podcast and take the show wherever you go.
Contact us
Say what you want to say. How you want to say it. We want to hear from you.
About us
Word of Mouth is all about what's new. Online and on-air, the show looks at our fascinating and ever-changing world, and puts the latest ideas under a microscope. Word of Mouth investigates everything from science and technology, to health and the environment, to new trends in popular culture. The show airs Monday through Thursday at noon and is hosted by Virginia Prescott.
Support From
 | |
THE NEXT GREEN THING
is supported by
supporting environmental education
and awareness and committed
to responsible forestry
The article implies that 8 million gallons of oil were "lost through the pipes" during Katrina. This is untrue.
No oil platforms in the GOM spilled ANY oil during any of the storms in the 2004-2005 season. The petroleum spills came from storage facilities and refineries that were damaged inland.
I'm willing to bet that Gustov also did not cause any offshore spills.
The total amount of petroleum spilled as result of Hurricanes Katrina amd Rita was approximately 8 million gallons. That includes losses from tank failures, sunken/damaged vessels, pipelines and rigs and platforms. The US Minerals Management Service (MMS), in its report on pipeline damage resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, noted that 72 spills were reported from pipelines for a total of 306,000 gallons of petroleum and 435,000 gallons were released in the 52 spills reported from rigs and platforms. The complete report can be found at http://www.mms.gov/tarprojects/581/44814183_MMS_Katrina_Rita_PL_Final%20...
It is important to note that because there are approximately 68,000 miles of pipelines, it will always be difficult to ever know the actual amount of oil released.