Officials say a major pipeline in Kansas has been shut down after oil spilled into a creek. TC Energy estimated the spill’s size is about 14,000 barrels.» Su...
Even pipelines that work leak tons of oil daily, it's just spread out along their length. The amount of maintenance that would be required to maintain them to a standard that doesn't leech out into the environment at all is a lot more than the amount required to make them juuuust good enough.
even with proper maintenance, you simply cannot have a pipeline hundreds of miles long with a flow rate of hundreds of thousands of barrels per day without it leaking.
It's diminishing returns. You'd have to be inspecting every mile of pipeline every day and be ready to make repairs and replace pipe constantly. It would effectively render any pipeline inoperable. It's untenable under any circumstances to have zero leakage in pipelines. Everything leaks. This is one among many reasons why it's imperative to transition away from petrochemicals for fuel, at the least.
Even pipelines that work leak tons of oil daily, it's just spread out along their length. The amount of maintenance that would be required to maintain them to a standard that doesn't leech out into the environment at all is a lot more than the amount required to make them juuuust good enough.
even with proper maintenance, you simply cannot have a pipeline hundreds of miles long with a flow rate of hundreds of thousands of barrels per day without it leaking.
then it's not proper maintenance
It's diminishing returns. You'd have to be inspecting every mile of pipeline every day and be ready to make repairs and replace pipe constantly. It would effectively render any pipeline inoperable. It's untenable under any circumstances to have zero leakage in pipelines. Everything leaks. This is one among many reasons why it's imperative to transition away from petrochemicals for fuel, at the least.