2026-0827 Construction Physics Newsletter
How the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Works
“To be safely distributed the vapor pressure in the oil must be below a certain level, which can be achieved at a “degasification” plant. But several years ago the SPR’s degasification plant was dismantled and hasn’t yet been replaced, limiting its ability to distribute crude during warmer times of the year. More generally, the SPR has a huge maintenance backlog and has been described as being held together with “band aids.” A planned large-scale SPR renovation and maintenance program, Life Extension Phase 2, began in 2021 but was scaled back due to high costs…”
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Short sighted penny “wise” dollar idiotic has a lot of traction these days….
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Another example of infrastructure suffering from deferred maintainence.
In govt the usual deferred maintenance routine is run it til it breaks. Then ask for more money. Once it breaks, no service until money arrives so repairs can begin.
I wonder how this will work w Social Security.
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Luckily this never happens in private industry.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/us/longview-chemical-tank-warnings.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Tank That Imploded, Killing 11, Was Known to Be Unsafe, Report Says
A chemical disaster in Washington in May involved a tank that had been deemed at risk of failure nearly a year before, according to federal investigators.
But according to the new report from investigators with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, the company “did not internally inspect G Tank or make any repairs to the tank’s shell between the July 2025 inspection and the May 2026 incident.”
Instead, Nippon Dynawave continued using G tank and did not reduce the amount of liquid stored or the frequency with which the tank was used.
The liquid mixture is used in the process of turning wood chips into bleached paper pulp for packaging such as milk and juice cartons. The 1.2 million-gallon tank was installed in 1987 at the Longview, Wash., plant.
In a note sent to employees on Friday, Nippon Dynawave president’s, Matt Peerboom, said the federal report did not include important context and details about how the company handled plant safety before the disaster. He noted that investigations into workplace accidents like the Longview explosion can take several years and urged patience.
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