A natural gas pipeline that was connected to an underground cavern storage has reportedly leaked in the USA. News reports indicate that the gas from the cavern is now being vented to atmosphere.
The article mentions the following:
The following information is being relayed by Incident Command: As a safety precaution, we are still proceeding with the depressurization of the storage cavern as planned. The depressurization began about 3 p.m. Tuesday. We’re still venting gas to the atmosphere. This is a controlled process. The natural gas vented into the atmosphere will dissipate into the air and does not pose a health hazard to neighbors. Since 3 p.m. yesterday (Tuesday), we’ve vented about 400 million cubic feet. The flow rate is currently around 225 million cubic feet per day. We do not have an estimated timeline of how long the venting will take before the pressure in cavern 3 is zero.
Read my earlier post on gas cavern storage.
Now, I do not have the details of the leak but I was wondering why the whole cavern has to be vented.
Read the articles in these links: Article 1, Article 2
Recently in Feb 2010, at Kleen Energy, natural gas blow to remove debris led to explosion and it appears lessons are not yet learnt though CSB advised not to vent NG into atmosphere.It is not difficult to have an ignition source nearby when flammable atmosphere is present, however controlled the release is and it is not prudent to depend on natural dilution. Instead, they could have burnt the gas by using flare tower(s) with proper backflow arrestors.
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