My grandfather was a plumber and when I was a kid, I used to help him sometimes. I would pack the Oakum into the sewer pipe joints before he poured in the molten lead. That is how it used to be done. Now it is mostly plastic. The other thing we did was to unplug sewer lines. This happened all the time. He had a big roll of steel tape that was called a "Snake" that we would run down the pipe while we twisted on one end. It was sharp on the end and could cut thru tree roots. Roots were a big problem and they still can be. Plugged up sewers was a common problem, so I was thinking that we should try some of "Mother Natures" ways of plugging pipes up. He goes on my idea from my grandfather and Mother Nature.
I think that some of you have had occasions to hook up an ice maker to your refrigerator while the main line still had pressure on it. The way that it is done is to bolt on a combination drill jig and shut off valve. Once the device is clamped onto the pipe, you can insert a drill thru a seal that will allow you do drill into the pipe while a gasket seals around the drill preventing any leaking. Once the drill is thru to the inside of the pipe, the drill can be pull back a little and a valve between the tip of the drill and outside of the pipe can be closed. Once the valve is closed, the drill can be fully removed. You can then attach the tube to the ice maker and then turn on the water with the valve that you closed after removing the drill. It is that easy. I have seen welders in the oil fields do this on above ground gas and oil lines. This is the way that many home hookups are made to the main water line so that water service to all in the area does not have to be turned off. My point is that plumbers and oil people already know how to do this. My change is the following.
Once the hole is drilled into the oil pipe, a special type drill is then reinserted that expands with 3 or 4 prongs when it is inserted into the pipe with the oil flowing thru it. It now acts like a tree root in a sewer line. The next thing that is needed is some toilet paper to put into the pipe at a similarly drilled hole up stream of the fake tree roots. This would not be toilet paper, but some high strength fiber material that would collect on the fake tree roots until the pipe became plugged. At the point the flow slowed, the fibers could be switched to cement for a final cure. Now some of the fibers would get past the fake roots, but over time more and more would catch just right and then more would collect. Now the toilet would be plugged.
Even if the plug leaked, it would be better than the full flow that we have now. If they could drill one hole into the pipe, they could drill more and install even more fake tree roots. These roots would be high strength tool steel that could hold the pressure and force from the oil and gas pushing on them. I think this would work and it could be done in parallel with any other ideas that they might also be trying. It seems to me that they are not doing things in parallel, only one thing at a time. I would be pulling out all the stops. It is possible to drill all the way thru and out the other side of the pipe if needed to hold the force. I think there are a lot of concepts that could be used that build on the idea of plugging up the sewer. Mother Nature has had a long time to perfect her systems and we should pay attention to her.
