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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (887396)	9/13/2015 4:10:30 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575517

Having oil seep into the aquifer at any point could damage the entire aquifer eventually. It isn't even oil.What is extracted from the sands is bitumen. Which is very thick and heavy. So thick and heavy that it needs to be diluted with something to pipeline it. That something is usually what they call "natural gas condensate". It is long enough chains where it can condense out from natural gas, but just barely. Think lighter fluid. The resulting mixture is called dilbit. This is important because it is much more penetrating than regular crude oil. Now regular crude oil contains lighter fractions too. It is just that it takes a lot more than what is usually in crude oil to get the bitumen to flow. So for a given volume of dilbit, it has, proportionately speaking, more light fractions than a typical crude. Which is a greater danger to the aquifer because that is what is more likely to get there in the first place. There are other factors. Despite the diluent, the pipeline is operated at a higher temperature. This accelerates corrosion. And the pipeline is operated at a higher pressure. Which, well... If you have ever seen the result of a dilbit pipeline leak, it can be horrific. The pipeline tends to fail catastrophically. And the stuff is pretty noxious. The fact that there are already pipelines in the area doesn't mean much. They can be problematic. But dilbit is another thing altogether. Calling dilbit 'oil' smacks of propaganda. Because it presents a different class of problems.

To: tejek who wrote (887396)	9/14/2015 3:45:14 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575517

Its not my opinion that this would be one more pipeline over that huge aquifer, out of many that have been built since the 50s. Its not my opinion that an oil spill would only cause local damage to the aquifer if it caused any at all, not perminant wide spread damage. But your right that it is my opinion that the aquifer was just, or at least mostly, a pretext. There was opposition to the pipeline before the aquifer was raised as a serious issue, and there would be opposition to it if there was no aquifer there or if it was rerouted around the aquifer. To have a pipeline crossing that region is just mind-boggling.” That ship sailed back in the 50s.