Unfortunately, that has occurred too often in this system. Again, I want to reiterate, there are some pipelines and pipeline management that are acting in a responsible and prudent manner, and not all companies should be tarred with the same brush. But there is a very significant percentage of operations that are ignoring common sense when it comes to this danger. Also, the line needs to be out of service for an extended time. We have found that, at least in our situation, there has been a seamless delivery of products in our area, despite the testing now underway on this line.
Hydrostatic testing is, in fact, common in the industry.
For instance, it has been done in a high percentage of the lines in California. The water does have to be treated after the testing, but we have found that there are ample vendors who will provide this service, and the test will cause neither a disruption of production of product, nor an environmental hazard in the state of Washington. For instance, there is a pipeline in eastern Washington that runs several hundred miles, where the management of the company routinely hydrostatically tests the line. They make adequate provisions for storage prior to the maintenance and are fully capable of treating the water used in the test. Your specific pipeline may be extremely well maintained, well inspected and well operated, and therefore, relatively safe.