Sam Fletcher
OGJ Online
Recent �high-profile� accidents, including two last year with multiple fatalities, have focused public attention on pipeline safety issues, despite that industry�s overall good record, say government officials.
�Pipelines are not less safe now than they were in the past. The industry�s safety record has been fairly constant,� said Stacey Gerard, associate administrator for pipeline safety at the Research & Special Programs Administration (RSPA) under the US Department of Transportation.
Still, she told OGJ Online, �More can be done. Technology has progressed enough and the industry�s understanding of that technology is mature enough that it�s time to raise the bar for safety requirements.�
Public concern about pipeline safety has increased recently as accident �victims reached out to other victims,� said Gerard.
�In an age of deregulation of the pipeline industry and with so many mergers among companies, safety questions have come up. There has been a lot of discussion and speculation about the impact of those changes on safety programs,� she said.
�People want more information,� Gerard said. �We have to address the public confidence issue. We hope to get more safety as a result, but the pipeline industry is really pretty safe already.�
Safety record
Pipelines transport all of the natural gas and 60% of the oil and petroleum products that fuel industries, homes, and the US economy. The RSPA is charged with ensuring safe, reliable, and environmentally sound operation of that interstate pipeline infrastructure.
Gerard acknowledged �a significant decrease� in pipeline accident rates over a 30-year period, although she said that progress has �flattened out in the last 5-10 years.�
In a period of nearly 15 years, from 1986 through the first 9 months of 2000, the RSPA�s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) reported 1,184 incidents involving natural gas transmission pipelines, resulting in 55 fatalities, 210 injuries, and $253.4 million in property damage.
That included 62 incidents during the first 9 months of 2000�the latest period for which information is available�with 14 fatalities, 14 injuries, and $9.1 million in damages. The number of fatalities was second only to 1989, when 103 incidents produced 22 fatalities, 28 injuries, and $20.5 million in damages.
During the same period of 1986 through 9 months of 2000, OPS recorded 2,000 incidents involving natural gas distribution systems, resulting in 273 fatalities, 1,213 injuries, and $235.2 million in property damage. The partial figures for 2000 included 114 incidents, 17 fatalities, 51 injuries, and $16.2 million damages.
There were 2,859 incidents involving hazardous liquid pipelines during the same 15-year period, resulting in 36 deaths, 239 injuries, and $563.4 million property damage, with the net loss of 1.6 million bbl of liquids, OPS reported.
�The Transportation Department�s own numbers show that pipelines are very safe. Less than 1/100 of 1% of all transportation accidents involve pipelines,� said Mel Scott, a spokesman for El Paso Energy Co.
Its subsidiary El Paso Natural Gas Co. was involved in what Gerard described as �a high-profile incident� when a rupture of a gas pipeline killed 12 people, including five children, near Carlsbad, NM, in August. That accident is still under investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Because of the greater danger from explosions, safety regulations are more stringent for natural gas pipelines, Gerard said.
Industry sources claim third-party damage�often involving excavation equipment accidentally striking buried pipelines�accounts for 40% of all accidents on interstate pipeline systems and 70% of the associated fatalities.
OPS officials said outside force damage is the leading cause of pipeline failures and is responsible for half the accidents resulting in fatalities. Last June, OPS reported the number of incidents resulting in damage to pipelines from outside forces had dropped 20% over the previous 12 months. US Transportation Sec. Rodney Slater said at that time the total number of pipeline accidents was down 5% in the same period (OGJ Online, June 30, 2000).
He attributed some of that reduction to the year-old �Dig Safely� program instituted by the OPS.
Concerns
Nonetheless, NTSB officials said in November that pipeline operators may need improved procedures to alert excavators to the dangers of multiple leaks and underground migration of gas from damaged pipelines (OGJ Online, Nov. 28, 2000). Officials said municipal personnel also should be trained on how to secure the area around a pipeline accident to protect citizens.
Those recommendations were based on a staff report of a January 1999 pipeline rupture in Bridgeport, Ala., that killed three people and injured five. NTSB officials said that accident occurred when a backhoe operator damaged a 3.4-in., 35-psig steel gas service line, enabling gas to migrate into an adjacent building. Three buildings were destroyed and several others damaged in the resulting explosion.
The whole onus of pipeline safety is not on the industry�s back, however. Gerard said residents near pipeline rights-of-way have �a shared responsibility, like a neighborhood watch� to guard against third-party activity that can rupture pipelines.
However, NTSB officials say recent pipeline accidents have raised concerns about the aging pipeline infrastructure.
�Many of the hazardous liquid and natural gas transmission pipelines in our community are 30-50 years old. Although age alone does not indicate that a pipeline may be unsafe, determining the integrity of pipelines becomes increasingly important as our pipeline systems go,� NTSB officials said prior to a hearing late last year to examine the technology available for assessing pipeline integrity.
Moreover, NTSB officials said a large percentage of the pipeline accidents that they investigated in 1999-2000 involved �controllers who may have failed to promptly recognize pipeline ruptures and then initiate timely action to reduce the consequences of the spill� (OGJ Online, Sept. 28, 2000).
