Is the carbon dioxide pipeline leaking in Mississippi bearing lessons in Canada?

Early in the evening from February 22, 2020, Depay Burns was driving his car with his brother and cousin along the 3 -year highway outside the city of Satartia, Miss, when they saw an explosion soon.

“We were returning from a fishing trip, and we actually saw the cloud of mushrooms. Just like the explosion, but without fire. It was just a large cloud of eggs in the air,” he said.

He was suspected of being from a nearby pipeline that passes through the hills over Satartia. What he did not know is that instead of oil or natural gas, compressed carbon dioxide and issues passed through the tubes.

The surrounding area immediately immersed with suffocating gas, which can be fatal in concentrated quantities because it replaces oxygen. Burns called his mother on the phone about the explosion. After seconds, the car engine was recruited; Burns, his brother and cousin, died.

“My phone was still running. She was calling my name: Depay, Depay, Depay. I stopped speaking.”

No one died in the wake of the explosion of the pipeline in the Mississippi state, but the first and resident respondents say they should know more about the risks to better prepare themselves for possible emergency situations.

With the presence of the major Canadian energy companies that defend the construction of the carbon dioxide pipeline in Alberta, CBC went to Sarattia to learn directly about the potential risks when the carbon dioxide pipeline passes through society.

Why carbon dioxide pipeline?

Carbon dioxide can be transferred through a pipeline for multiple reasons. In the case of the pipeline in the Mississippi, it is a process called improved oil, as carbon dioxide pumping in oil wells can help extract more oil.

In Canada, a consortium is suggested by one of the largest energy companies in the country called a huge carbon dioxide pipeline that says it will reduce the emissions of oil sand production in Alberta.

You will get carbon dioxide emissions from more than 20 oil facilities in northern Alberta and transport them 400 km via the pipeline for storing them in a natural underground tank in the cold lake area. CO2 is then kept under the ground, with the aim of preventing emissions from entering the atmosphere.

The coalition for the first time suggested the project in 2022, but you have The agreements have not yet expired With federal governments and regional governments around incentives and how they will be paid.

CCS and its storage (CCS) is part of the solution to reach net zero emissions worldwide, according to International Energy Agencyand A major part of oil companies plans To reduce emissions by a third of 2019 levels by 2030.

However, CCs CCS drew a red braid in the climatic battle.

Opinion in the New York Times from 2022 It is called “every dollar” spent on CCS “Millet” Since it allows the continued production of gas and oil by “disguise as climate change solutions”, rather than moving to cleaner energy sources.

The residents who live near the place where the proposed pipeline will be buried Narwal said in the past fall They had concerns about possible leaks or rupture, and how it could affect water, agricultural lands and original treaties.

What happened in Mississippi

Satartia, Miss, is a small village that is not far from the Mississippi Delta with about 50 residents, a main street, a grocery store, a single -room town hall, and a group of homes. One local said it was very flat on the delta, you can see a dog running for three days.

On the night of the explosion, some of the population abroad had boiling locusts. Hugh (Buba) Martin, an old woman who lives in the army lives in Satartia, has not heard the pipeline explodes on the music and gas that cooks the locusts of the sea. But then discover a smell like a spoiled egg that fills the air.

Soon after, everyone was struggling to stay aware.

“I was awake, but nothing was registered. Just exhausted. Your mind was not working. I mean, everyone tried to dispersion. Everyone was passing. The vehicles were not working.”

Local emergency services are immersed 911 calls describing the smell of gas, people passing and cars that stop on the roads.

Carbon dioxide without smell and uncomfortable, but the local population told CBC that they believed that the smell came from hydrogen sulfide, or sour gas, which may have been mixed with carbon dioxide.

Jack Wellingham, director of the emergency department in Yazu Province, where Satartia is located, said the first respondents do not know what the problem is for at least 30 minutes. He said he was not aware of the presence of carbon dioxide pipeline that passes through his boycott.

He said, “At this particular time (there), there was not a lot of communication between us and the pipeline operator that promises us with what is going on.”

A strange scene

Carbon dioxide is not dangerous in low doses. Humans exhale it every time we take a breath. But with higher concentrations and in the cloudy cold weather, carbon dioxide will not always be separated into the air. Instead, it will sit in an invisible cloud on the ground, which leads to the displacement of oxygen, which makes it difficult to breathe. It also suffocates internal combustion engines, which means that many vehicles will not work.

This made rescue operations in Saturday more difficult, as he struggled with the first respondents to keep their cars to operate. Some had to enter the city on foot, wear air masks and breathing tanks.

Jerry Briggs, an EMS firefighter from the neighboring Warren County, said that Saturday resembles the ghost city when his team arrived. Most of the population fled, but the respondents still have to search for anyone who left it.

“8:00 pm on Saturday. Lights on TVs. Cars are there; no one (inside),” he said.

While driving along highways in search of victims, Briggs and Team found that most parked cars were empty. But one of them had three people: Depay Burns, his brother and cousin, all of them unconscious.

Initially, Briggs thought they died, but they soon realized that they were still breathing. The ALL-TERRAIN user is very small, so the team accumulated the three subconscious men at the top of their equipment and backup air tanks at the back.

“In the south, we say that we have downloaded it like deer, as you know, after hunting deer,” said Briggs. “I know this seems terrible, but in the past, they may not survive.”

The firefighters led them to safety, then the trio was taken by the paramedics to the nearby Hospital.

“When they found us, what I understood, we were going to the mouth, hardly breathing,” Burns said. Remember that if they put there another five minutes before, they will not survive.

Effects and questions

Forty -five people needed a hospital’s medical attention and more than 200 people from the Satartia area were evacuated. Officially, everyone recovered. But although he cannot prove the link, Burns believes that he lives with traces after exposure and about three hours that he is believed to have spent the unconscious.

“I have memory loss. As you know, I have a problem with focusing. I am not about a lot of people. You know, I am leading myself greatly from a lot of things,” he said.

Wellingham says the explosion has most likely because some clay soils in Yazu Province “tend to shift more than normal dirt in the area,” and made heavy rains in that year more unstable.

If it would happen after an hour or two, this whole society would have died.Hugh (Buba) Martin

In its investigation in the explosion, the results of the American pipeline and the results of the management of dangerous material safety have suggested possible violations of federal safety regulations and suggested a hearing. Instead, Denbury, the pipeline operator at the time, agreed to pay a fine of just less than 3 million US dollars.

Execunmopille, who bought Denberry in 2023, said it “has strengthened her infrastructure and raised her standards to prevent future accidents”, and works “closely with local respondents to ensure a well -coordinated response to any accident.”

In a statement of CBC, Pathways Alliance said that its proposed project will be built “in a stable corridor in the first place after the rights of the current roads, unlike the carbon dioxide pipeline accident in the Mississippi that was built in an area exposed to landslides.”

It also mentioned that it will have a “multi -layer safety system” that includes actual time pressure control, seismic imaging and the discovery of leakage by both computer systems and human operators.

Wellingham says the audience should realize whether the carbon dioxide line has been installed in their area regardless of where they live, so the first respondents have better information to save lives with their own protection.

“Have you ever been taught in your life what to do if there is a carbon dioxide accident in your area? Why do we not know our people about what do we do?” He said.

“I am not a midfield, I am not a professional pipeline. I am just a professional general safety.”

Martin says things can be disastrous if explosions occur after people were already in bed.

“If that would happen after an hour or two, this whole society would have died.”