On reading about the recent Colonial Pipeline leak I started wondering what good could be derived from such an untoward event. Fortunately no one was hurt with this 300,000 or so gallon gasoline leak,although one supposes that if all that fuel were to catch fire in a populous neighborhood rather than, fortunately enough, in the woods somewhere, things might have gone otherwise.
There is, I suppose, a school of thought that accepts that accidents will happen, but they are worth examining as a learning tool. So in this case what could be learned would be the design and age of pipes and expected lifespan. I may be mistaken, but believe the above section that leaked was 50 years old. Now mind you, I am all for respect of older folks, as I am now retired. Still, I must admit, I am not what I was 30 years ago. The same might apply to pipes. A program of regularly replacing pipelines at a certain age would be expensive, but then not replacing them might be also.
An interesting example of industry change in the oil transport business was the adoption of double hulls for ocean going oil tankers. These double hulls are employed as an extra safety measure so that an otherwise small breach in the hull doesn't lead to a large oil spill.
In the case of these pipelines, I of course am not sure how realistic or reasonable it would be to add a second pipe over the first, or alternately, construct a pipeline so that a leak can be contained for some time. Perhaps periodic reservoirs could be constructed under the line. Also one wonders regarding the feasibility of leak or pressure detectors that could automatically shut off the pipeline.
Understandably,we need pipelines to bring us our fuel of all types, really, and the use of pipelines is much safer and efficient than transportation by train or vehicle.
Luke E. Spiekermann MD (ret)
Hixson