You don’t have to live in the Mississippi Delta to experience the ill effects of petroleum use.  Today it was discovered that a Chevron pipeline in Salt Lake City had ruptured, leaking oil at a rate of 50 gallons/minute for 9 hours.  This spill has soiled much of the Red Butte area and effectively closed down Liberty Park.   We in Salt Lake are fortunate in that this accident / disaster? does not affect our livelihoods significantly as it does those who live in the Gulf.

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This spill was much worse than I anticipated when I approached Liberty Park from my house (just 250m away).  Most of the geese had already been rounded up and taken up to Hogle Zoo for cleaning.  I approached the shore where several workers were using a skimmer to collect the thick oil sludge from the surface of the lake.  The smell of petroleum was so strong that for a moment, I actually wondered if my camera might create a spark that would set off an explosion…

Things I found most surprising – and concerning, were the lack of a well prepared response and the lax security.  I was able to walk up to the edge of the water with no difficulties.  There seemed to be a lot of people (I’m sure well-intentioned) just milling around the area.  Somehow, I thought a spill of this size would have warranted a larger, more prominent state government response.

We live in a petroleum based world.  Perhaps it is time for us all to rethink what price we are willing to pay for our cheap gas and nice plastics?

A link to the full story on the Salt Lake Tribune can be found here.

Do you have something to say about the state of our dependency on oil? Post your comments for discussion below…