Re:The Colonial Pipeline Was Fine, Shutdown to Make Sure Its...
by Animats on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @03:41AM
(#27192138)
Is there good info on this somewhere?
Colonial Pipeline is a common carrier, "moving gasolines, kerosenes, home heating oils, diesel fuels and national defense fuels" (the US military runs on something which has the additives to be used either as JET-A or diesel fuel) "to shipper terminals in 12 states and the District of Columbia." Some pipelines switch from one product to another, usually with a slug of water in between for separation.
There's valve switching, tank filling, and tank emptying going on. If you can't coordinate that, the wrong product ends up in the wrong place. If they lost the system that tracks what's where and where it's going, they have to shut down, or, as they seem to have done, dropped the pumping speed way down so they could operate the system manually.
Colonial Pipeline is a common carrier, "moving gasolines, kerosenes, home heating oils, diesel fuels and national defense fuels" (the US military runs on something which has the additives to be used either as JET-A or diesel fuel) "to shipper terminals in 12 states and the District of Columbia." Some pipelines switch from one product to another, usually with a slug of water in between for separation. There's valve switching, tank filling, and tank emptying going on. If you can't coordinate that, the wrong product ends up in the wrong place. If they lost the system that tracks what's where and where it's going, they have to shut down, or, as they seem to have done, dropped the pumping speed way down so they could operate the system manually.
It's not just one pipe that carries one product.