[tzs]

> Pipelines are much safer than trains or trucks at delivering oil or LNG. That subject is not up for debate.

Safer by what measure? Pipelines have fewer spills than trucks, but a truck spill is generally limited to one truck's worth of oil whereas a pipe can spill a huge amount. (I'm not sure where trains fit in. A train carries more oil than a truck, but train accidents won't always break every car).

[nightski]

Modern pipelines have sensors that are monitored continuously and leaks can be detected incredibly quick.

The recent leak in ND was a little worse than normal because it was during a rough blizzard which made it rather difficult to respond quickly.

[cjf101]

Those sensors do fail, however.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2117570/alberta-oil-spill-when-fai... (2015)

Notice how many failure reports are not the sensor, but are due to humans checking up on the pipeline. The conditions these pipelines are installed in can be pretty hostile to equipment and monitoring. Going by those numbers, I'd say sensor systems have a ways to go.

The debate that usually goes around is that pipelines fail less often, but their failures tend to spill more oil, in more sensitive areas.

The other dimension, that isn't often talked about, is which transport system has the best chance to improve. Despite their current shortcomings, I think that a system that is dedicated to one job (moving dangerous fluids) has a better safety ceiling than shared systems, like trains and roads.

[nightski]

I definitely agree. I think instead of spending so much time debating over pipeline vs. rail/truck we should be focusing on how to make our pipelines better and safer. I mean sensor failure detection is pretty common in all the embedded systems I have worked on.