One of the issues mentioned that has hindered the ability to get a cost estimate on repairs was compliance with enviromental issues---getting a dollar figure on that is like trying to hit a moving target, you just get things set and some other enviromental issue pops up. It would be interesting to know what the enviromental issues really are, how critical they really are, and how much of the restoration cost is related to only those issues. In this day and age, no one is intentionally going to cause a polution problem (too much liability) but today we spend an awful lot on things that might happen, could happen and might never happen but...
Has anyone bothered to calculate how much additional enviromental impact is taking place because the line is out of service. (How much extra pollution from trucks for example.) (How much extra erosion is taking place during rain storms from the unrepaired open wounds.)