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Archive for June 4th, 2015
Inspectors find ruptured Calif pipeline badly corroded
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
Reuters: A section of pipeline that ruptured sending as much as 2,400 barrels of crude oil into the Santa Barbara coastline in May was severely corroded, federal regulators said on Wednesday.
Third-party inspectors estimated that corrosion of the line owned by Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline had degraded to 1/16th of an inch, said a U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) corrective action order document.
The May 19 spill dumped as much as 2,400 barrels (101,000...
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Drought, water shortages become top worry for Californians: poll
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
Reuters: California's devastating drought has become the top concern for residents for the first time, as the most populous U.S. state experiences mandatory water cutbacks, according to a poll released on Wednesday.
More than one-third, or 39 percent, of likely voters surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California named water shortages and the drought as the state's most pressing issue, followed by 20 percent who said jobs and the economy were of biggest concern.
It was the first time the state's...
Ranchers defy U.S. in grazing parched Nevada lands, environmentalists say
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
Reuters: A Nevada ranch defied U.S. drought closure orders in grazing cattle on federally managed land, environmentalists said on Wednesday, comparing it to action by another Nevada rancher that led to an armed standoff last year with federal agents. The ranchers in the Battle Mountain area in northern Nevada let their livestock graze on Tuesday at the North Buffalo allotment managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the Western Watersheds Project said in a statement. "The ranchers generate public sympathy...
California oil spill pipeline left to rust paper-thin
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
Guardian: An oil pipeline that ruptured and spilled an estimated 383,000 litres (101,000 gallons) of crude near Santa Barbara in May had been allowed to corrode to a tiny fraction of its original thickness, federal regulators have said.
The preliminary findings released on Wednesday by the federal pipeline and hazardous materials safety administration point to a possible cause of the 19 May spill that blackened popular beaches and created a 14.5km (nine mile) slick in the Pacific Ocean.
The agency said...