Oil transportation is always an ecological disaster away
DOON, IOWA—An estimated 870,619 litres of crude oil spilled into floodwaters in the northwestern corner of Iowa following a train derailment, a railroad official said Saturday.
BNSF spokesperson Andy Williams said 14 of 32 oil tanker cars just south of Doon in Lyon County leaked oil into surrounding floodwaters from the swollen Little Rock River. Williams had earlier said 33 oil cars had derailed.
Fossil fuel exploration, extraction, transportation, storage, and of course, combustion: all disasters.
FFS!
If the oil companies had to pay the clean up costs, things might be different.
Derailment's can be caused by many things; A washout from heavy rains,broken rail(s),broken axle on one or more tank cars,sabotage,rails spreading from excess weight, the track structure is held to the ground by the ballast(rocks,special gravel)compacted around the ties(sleepers,for some from the UK and Europe) Normal gauge from the center of one rail to the other is 4 feet,8 and 1/2 inch.
IDC what it's caused by, usually poor infrastructure. Our tax dollars are going to all the wrong places.
@Louise1920 That is so cool! Small world! hardly anyone knows where Whittier is.
Does my profile say, Whittier? Because that's where I live, I thought it said, Los Angeles.
@CaroleKay BNSF(Burlington Northern Santa Fe),and UP(Union Pacific) spend countless millions for up keep. Most of their heavy freight locomotive cost $1 million each,next time you see a BNSF freight train,usually two men are operating the locomotives through MU(Multiple Unit cables) The ,and the Engineer,as many as 6 on the front and maybe one or two on the rear.
@Louise1920 Thanks for all the info. I am taking it all in.
@CaroleKay I'm a train "Nut", trying to keep up with the fast changes to the locomotive and rail technology,probably from a young age,I was introduced to trains,first the old Steam engines and later the Diesels. Most Diesel Locomotives are the first "Hybrids" that is a Diesel engine,spins a large Direct Current(DC) generator or in some cases an Alternator,producing 600 volts DC for the traction motors and the Alternator produces AC but is changed back to DC for the traction motors,although new technology is using AC traction motors.
@Louise1920 Lol! That was a strange coincidence,
@Louise1920 Trains are fascinating. Such large and powerful machines. I went to the Henry Ford Museum and was blown away by the old trains displayed there.
Consider,many small communities have water intakes for their citizens,on rivers,not everyone can tap a well for drinking water. Crude oil has so many toxic chemicals in it, Asphalt,Jet Fuel Diesel fuel,Plastic base stocks,and the list goes on for it's uses.......
That's why we need pipelines.
Is this sarcasm? Pipelines break all the time.
Pipelines are the safest way to transport crude oil. Some references:
That statistics don't lie. If you look at gallons of oil carried vs gallons of oil spilled, pipelines are better than trucks or trains.
A high pressure high volume pipeline burst would lead to many many gallons spilled, to that would hurt the Gallons carried vs. gallons spilled stats for pipelines, but pipelines carry a HUGE amount of oil safely, and high pressure high volume pipeline bursts are extremely rare.
??? It’s 2018! Why are we still using Dino juice?
That is what this country and Wall Street is invested in.