How Safe are Pipelines?

Posted by Tracy Crawford on Feb 4, 2013 in Home Regular, The Conversation

Let’s face it, all technologies we employ for the betterment of life carry risks – yes bathtubs included! With all the news about pipelines (and with Keystone XL taking center-stage), I thought it worthwhile to take a look as some stats.

Here’s the Data

Fortunately the US Department of Transportation keeps track of such things and makes the data available. Here are a few findings:

If we look at just the fatalities numbers, it may add some perspective to understand that a little over 30,000 people are killed each year in the US in automobile accidents. This compares with a 10-year average of 16 deaths per year

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related to pipeline incidents.

Pipeline Risk is LOW!

The 10-year average estimate of property damage from pipeline incidents as reported by the DOT is about $463 million. Now that seems like a big number, but, on a per person basis for people living in the US, it is less than $1.50 per person/year. The Automobile Association of America estimates (2008 data) that car crashes cost around $166 billion/year – that’s billion with a “B” or about 358 times more than property damage related to pipeline incidents.

How Many Pipelines in the US?

Now you may think that the US has a just a few pipelines and that the damage, fatality and injuries are of concern if we dramatically increase the mileage of our US pipelines. Have a look at the map below: