Technology designed to detect U.S. energy pipeline leaks often fails

On a routine check of a surface coal mining facility in rural Alabama early this month, inspector Randall Aldridge first smelled gasoline. Then he saw dead plants and animals along a man-made pond that helps the region manage heavy rain.
The cause had nothing to do with a mine.
Aldridge happened upon a leak on the main fuel artery to the U.S. East Coast known as the Colonial Pipeline, in what turned out to be the company's largest gasoline spill in nearly 20 years.
Colonial Pipeline Co and its peers in the oil and gasoline transport sector, tout high-tech, complex leak detections systems... read more