C&EE Professors Jonathan Stewart and Eric Hoek responded to media inquiries about the oil spill in Orange County earlier this week. Their statements earned coverage in The Associated Press, which also got picked up by ABC, Yahoo, The Daily Herald, The Charlotte Observer and many others throughout the U.S. and Canada in both English and Spanish-language media.
The Associated Press – Mystery lingers around cause of California oil pipeline leak
Jonathan Stewart, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, said he was surprised the damage wasn’t more severe given how far the pipe was moved.
“My first reaction when I heard that it is displaced so far was that it’s remarkable that it’s even intact at all,” Stewart said.
ABC News – Small crack in pipeline may have delayed oil spill detection
Jonathan Stewart, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, said he was surprised the damage wasn’t more severe given how far the pipe was moved.
“My first reaction when I heard that it is displaced so far was that it’s remarkable that it’s even intact at all,” Stewart said.
Yahoo Noticias – El vertido de crudo revitaliza la lucha contra combustibles fósiles en EE.UU.
(Transl. from Spanish) This great stain has affected the lives of hundreds of birds, turtles, dolphins and fish that tend to rise to the surface of the water where the spilled oil is found, according to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Professor of Engineering Civil and Environmental, Eric Hoek.
“It is likely that it will take a few weeks to assess the full extent of the leak and the subsequent damage, and then it could take years to remedy,” Hoek predicted in statements to Efe.
Jonathan Stewart, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, said he was surprised the damage wasn’t more severe given how far the pipe was moved.
“My first reaction when I heard that it is displaced so far was that it’s remarkable that it’s even intact at all,” Stewart said.
Moving a large section of pipe up to 105 feet (32 meters) would have caused “bending deformations” – tension on the side that was stretched into a semicircle, with compression on the other, as it was bent inward, Stewart said.
It’s possible such pressure alone could result in a break, though Stewart said there is too little information to make a conclusion about the cause. It’s possible a sharp section of anchor could pierce the pipeline but “you could still have damage just from the bending.”
“Because it’s pulling on the pipe, you create these bending stresses in the pipe, which could eventually become large enough that they rupture it,” he said.