Teenagers discover the biggest gas pipe leak in US history

A giant pipeline spewed millions of gallons of fuel into a nature reserve for more than two weeks until two teens on four wheels noticed the spill and alerted the authorities.

Teens discovered the leak in the Colonial pipeline in August 2020 at Ohler Nature Preserve outside Charlotte, North Carolina, E&E News Reports. Just how massive the leak actually was — about 2 million gallons — came out as recently as Friday, July 22.

Colonial Pipeline was required to provide an updated damage estimate due to a recent approval order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. The company had previously reported that the leak released 63,000 gallons of gasoline shortly after the leak was discovered.

We now know that the leak is about 30 times larger than originally expected. This makes it “the largest onshore fuel spill in the country,” According to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. But E&E Indicates that it is likely to be the largest Pipeline The gas has leaked since a 2.3 million-gallon storage tanker in East Chicago, Indiana, ruptured in 1986.

Colonial says it collected about 75 percent of the two million gallons that leaked, as well as nearly 10 million gallons of water that came into contact with the petroleum. Fortunately, the company Says His testing “did not confirm any effects on water supply wells”.

The pipeline is already known for other reasons. With a 5,500-mile pipeline that transports 100 million gallons of fuel per day between Texas and New York, the Colonial Pipeline is the largest refined petroleum products pipeline system in the United States. In May 2021, the pipeline should have been Taken offline for five days After a ransomware attack, which led to rising gas prices, panic and traffic jams outside gas stations. The fiasco Show how vulnerable to hackers of the country’s energy infrastructure, who used hacked password To enter the Colonial network.

Apparently, most pipelines are not very technologically complex when it comes to detecting spills either. Most of the leaks were found by people as was the case with Colonial, E&E News reports.