27 horses dead - gas leak - arguments - Idaho

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng


Twenty-seven horses owned by ranchers near Malta have been reported dead, possibly in connection with a natural gas leak in the area.Michele Swaner, spokeswoman for Northwest Pipeline, said company personnel discovered about 16 dead horses on the ranch Friday evening while conducting routine maintenance checks on the 24-inch pipeline that runs underground. She said the company immediately notified the Cassia County Sheriff's Office and the owner of the land, Benjamin Bartlett.Since then, 11 more horses have been found dead.Wallace Ward of Burley Veterinary Hospital said he inspected the horses at the ranch Wednesday. He said the horses were found about 300 to 400 yards from what he and ranch manager Cameron Tuckett suspected was a leak in Northwest's underground pipeline.Several of the horses' bodies were lying on top of each other, he said.Swaner said Northwest was not notified of a possible leak in the pipeline until 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday. She said the leak was confirmed Thursday at 2:53 p.m., and crews have since shut down and isolated the damaged pipeline.Swaner said that without further investigation it is impossible to say whether the gas leak caused the horses' deaths."It could, indeed, be a coincidence," she said. "It's too early to make an assumption about the horses and the gas."Ward said he conducted tests on tissues from the horses' bodies, but the time elapsed between their deaths and his tests will make it difficult to draw conclusions about what caused the deaths."The horses were dead five days, so there wasn't much to test," he said. "The possibility of getting anything out of the tissue is remote."Ward said chemicals in natural gas break down rapidly as bodies decompose, leaving little trace of inhalation. This makes it difficult to prove a connection between the horses' deaths and the gas leak.Bartlett said the fact his horses died so close to the time the gas leak occurred causes him to believe the incidents are connected.It's just too coincidental," he said. "We've got somebody at fault and I'm sure they didn't do anything on purpose. But the consequences are pretty devastating."Bartlett disputed Northwest's claim that it had notified him Friday of the horses' deaths. He said he first heard of the deaths Monday when Tuckett contacted him.Tuckett said he discovered the corpses Monday, three days after Northwest says it alerted Bartlett."Why in the world would you not call and let me know that something was going on?" he asked. He said he believes Northwest is intentionally trying to conceal the damage caused by the gas leak.It's a mess," Tuckett said. "This is my livelihood, and these guys are just trying to railroad all over me."The police report valued the horses at $130,000, but the owners would not estimate the amount of their loss.A pipeline crew completed repairs just before 5 a.m. Friday.
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this 6 foot+ deep ditch has been sitting open for about 10 days.

how uncaring of whoever dug the ditch

and at least where it crosses us none of that would stop animals from falling in. Human morans are not supposed to be out there without permission, so if they fall in... oh well :evilgrin:

I suspect where the line is in a more populated area there is plenty of orange plastic fence and other "protections". My cows just eat that stuff so in the few places where they put it up (more for their workers, I suspect) I told them to take it down.

for so long, delaying autopsies that would prove their negligence I would guess. I can't even imagine the financial pain of losing that many horses but beyond that, the emotional pain would be devastating.

America's first rate infrastructure revealed! It's not just public infrastructure outdated and crumbling.


As Malloy says :Jesus, I hate these people!"

:wow:

Such blatant disregard for life...

Natural gas is a "simple asphyxiant." The difference is that a poison gas kills through its own action (think cyanide, carbon monoxide, the words coming out of Bush's mouth), whereas a simple asphyxiant (carbon dioxide, natural gas, acetylene) just displaces oxygen. These horses died outside; there's almost no chance that natural gas in free air could build up enough to displace enough oxygen to kill a horse. (Not to mention the fact that the head on a horse is far enough above the ground that you would need a PILE of gas to kill one.)

So we have some dead horses and a natural gas leak. They're not connected because natural gas isn't poisonous. I'd start looking for some of the many noxious weeds in Idaho that can kill horses.