South Dakota Salt Water Tanks Decimated By Lightning

This summer three noxious long-burning fired were started by lightning strikes to South Dakota salt-water disposal tanks. The Brakken oil boom has led to hundreds of these facilities, approximately 440, to be built in the South Dakota prairies.

Such disposal tanks are not any more susceptible to lightning strikes than any other structures spread over the plains. However there fiber glass components and highly flammable contents make it inevitable they will go up in flames when hit.

The salt-water brine stored in these tanks is a by-product of oil production. It is between 10 and 30 times saltier than seawater and contains oil residue when it is put into tanks where highly combustible gas vapors collect. In the tanks the liquid settles and the oil separates, companies then sell this oil and let the rest of the liquid sink into the ground.

Since brine is corrosive, destroying metal tanks within a few years, most companies use tanks made of our lined with fiber glass which lasts longer. According to John Jensenius, lightning safety expert at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, metal-only tanks would allow the electricity from a lightning strike to pass through them and ground more easily. Fiberglass, however, resists electrical charge, heats up and causes fires.

The three fires this past summer destroyed almost all of the storage tanks of the three North Dakota sites struck by lightning this summer.

At the site near Ross, only three of the fourteen tanks were left standing. Also, according to the State, approximately 24,000 gallons of oil was spilled or burned and 76,000 gallons was spilled. The chief financial officer for the site's owner, Basic Energy Services, Alan Krenek, stated it is standard procedure for the Fort Worth, Texas-based company to install lightning protection systems at its sites, but in the case of the Ross plant such remediation had not been installed.

It will cost nearly $2 million to clean up the damage at the Ross site and replace the tanks.

South Dakota does not require lighting protection in salt-water facilities; however, such precautions may prove a worthy investment. Although protecting all the tanks at a single site can cost tens of thousands of dollars; it will cost nearly $2 million to clean up the Ross site.

"When one tank goes, to be honest with you, it's like a domino effect," said lighting protection expert Peter Carpenter. "When one tank goes, you lose the majority of tanks in that battery."

It is also important to make sure any lighting protection is truly comprehensive. A July 7 strike at a facility located near a popular highway truck stop close to the town of Alexander, burned for days and spilled about 118,000 gallons of brine and burned off nearly 28,000 gallons of oil. Although Fred Kershinik, a top official at the sight, told The Associated Press, the site was grounded and the company thought it had taken all necessary steps to minimize devastating effects of lightning strikes, the company will be intensively reviewing how it protects sites.

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Lightning Testing