WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015
Last February, a leaking 30-inch natural gas pipeline
sparked an explosion in Knifley, Ky., an unincorporated community a few miles
east of the Green River.
The fire destroyed two houses, four cars, a carport and
three other buildings.
Two people were injured, although they didn't require
hospitalization. A day after the fire, federal pipeline regulators ordered
Columbia Gas Transmission Co. to shut down the line. Allowing it to stay in
operation "would result in likely serious harm to life, property and the
environment," documents show.
A little more than a year later, the Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Administration, the branch of the U.S. Transportation
Department that oversees interstate pipelines, closed the case. Despite the
damage and the injuries, Columbia hasn't paid a fine.
It wasn't an anomaly. In all of 2014, PHMSA issued fewer
fines and started fewer pipeline safety investigations than in the previous
four years. The decline in enforcement came even though the number of
pipeline-related spills, leaks and other accidents rose from 2013 to 2014. It
all happened three years after Congress passed a law doubling the fines that
PHMSA can impose.
One year's worth of cases doesn't constitute a trend, but
the drop in enforcement is a big concern to safety advocates, said Carl Weimer
at the Pipeline Safety Trust.
"It looks like something has gone askew," Weimer
said.
PHMSA said it, too, has noticed the increase in pipeline
incidents.
"Overall, if you look at the big picture trend, the
trend is going down," said Linda Daugherty, deputy associate administrator
for field operators, in an interview. "If you look at it year by year,
there is an uptick."
The number of enforcement cases could change -- it sometimes
takes months to complete an investigation after an accident happens. And the
number of cash penalties may not reflect the effort PHMSA puts into inspecting
pipelines, Daugherty said.
Over the last few years, PHMSA has tried to focus on doing
systemwide inspections, rather than individual pipe sections. That approach
could mean fewer cases over the short term, but the inspections will delve
deeper and could solve problems before they lead to accidents.
Daugherty said, though, that it may take a while to see
results from the change in strategy.
"I believe in it -- it's going to take some time,"
Daugherty said.
Interstate only
According to PHMSA's website, there were 703 leaks and other
accidents in 2014, up from 617 the year before.
Of those, 309 were classified as "significant
incidents," meaning they involved a death, serious injury, significant
property damage or a large liquids spill. That's an increase from 296
significant incidents in 2013, and the most since 2005.
The number of significant incidents on gas transmission
lines rose to 78 from 69 the year before -- the most since 2011. The number of
significant incidents on oil and liquids systems fell from 161 to 155 during
the same time. That's the second-highest number since 1997.
PHMSA imposed 25 penalties in 2014, worth a total of $2.7
million, down from 63 totaling $9.8 million the year before -- the lowest number
since 2008. It initiated 154 other enforcement cases -- which can range from a
warning letter to orders that require immediate repairs -- during 2014, down
from 266 the year before and lower than any year since 2003.
Cathy Landry, communications director at the Interstate
Natural Gas Alliance of America, said some of the increase in incidents has
happened because the industry is reporting releases and malfunctions at its
compressor stations and other facilities. Those facilities are generally
isolated from the public, she said.
"It's still a significant incident, but there's no
danger to the public, no cost to the public," Landry said.
The federal agency regulates only interstate oil and gas
pipelines -- generally long-haul systems. The bulk of U.S. pipelines are run by
local utility companies, which are regulated by the states.
So while the number of deaths more than doubled to 19 in
2014 from nine the year before, only one death occurred on a federally
regulated pipeline, according to PHMSA's data.
Toward the end of 2014, PHMSA proposed stricter safety
regulations for oil and liquids lines (EnergyWire, March 16). It also works
with state agencies and the pipeline industry on issues such as preventing
crews or the general public from digging into pipelines.
And even without cash penalties and enforcement action,
PHMSA can "pinch" companies by requiring them to make extensive
repairs after an accident, Daugherty said.
That appears to be what happened after the Knifley incident.
Columbia Gas determined that the pipeline had ruptured due to "earth
movement" -- the second such break on the line since 2012, according to
local media reports. The company had to fix any land features that could cause
a future problem. Columbia was in compliance with all federal regulations at
the time of the accident, a spokesman said at the time of the accidents.
More attention for PHMSA
PHMSA will play an important role as the U.S. pipeline
network expands to connect to new fields in North Dakota, Texas, Ohio and
Pennsylvania, the Pipeline Safety Trust's Weimer said.
"With the huge buildout of new pipelines, you'd like to
think they're putting a lot more people on the ground," he said.
And Congress is paying attention to the agency's progress in
rolling out the 2011 pipeline safety law. The statute was enacted after eight
people died in a natural gas explosion in San Bruno, Calif. It doubled the
maximum fines for pipeline accidents to $200,000 -- $2 million for repeat
violations -- and directed PHMSA to carry out a string of mandates and studies.
About half of those requirements have been fulfilled, according to PHMSA's
website.
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), ranking member on the
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, asked in February for the
Department of Transportation's inspector general to audit PHMSA's overall
performance (EnergyWire, Feb. 4).
He said in a statement he plans to bring up the agency's
pipeline oversight in an April 14 hearing.
"PHMSA is an incredibly opaque agency with a history of
trusting the industry to self-regulate," DeFazio wrote. "I am
concerned about the agency's ability to address significant safety issues in a
timely manner."
Source: http://www.eenews.net
Would you trust the wolf to guard the sheep? We would not, and we hope that nobody
would. The pipeline, railroads and all
other industries are motivated by profit, even if that means being skimpy on
safety and the environment.
Railroads
have not been making money for may-many years and they have not been spending
money to upgrade their infrastructure.
All these derailments and accidents and deaths and collisions and
crashes are the result of that.
With the significant increase in new pipelines being
installed, we expect significant increase in deaths and property damage and
environmental impacts. These are “cheap”
mentality type of industries where “safety first” is just a lip service. Most of the time they cover up their deeds or
collude with the feds to write minimal safe standards to ensure that their
pocket book will not be affected. That
is why “taking the safety lead” means:
the industry prepares the regs based on how much they want to spend on
safety upgrades and ask the feds to sign the dotted lines. The feds are either
sleep at the wheel or are many years behind in oversight or outright bought by
the lobbyists and they leave the agencies to become consultants in these industries
– the same way the bankers do it with the fed financial agencies. We are certain you have heard the term:
revolving doors.
We have one of the highest road death rates in the world,
where 34,000 people die and 2.5 million injured every year; several millions of gallons of oil are
spilled every year from the notoriously unsafe big rig fuel tanks; there are
numerous incidents of natural gas explosions or fires every year in the
distribution network. All these
incidents cost the industries lots of money in lost productivity and actual
loss in life or property.
Significant amount of gas and oil leaks from the existing pipelines,
only we do not see it as it is underground.
Very minimal testing is done in the ground around these pipelines to
check their integrity – all because of the lobbying efforts of these industries
to minimize scrutiny.
What we need is a third-party, completely independent oversight
entity (sort of an “untouchable” entity) that would help address the pipeline,
railroad and other infrastructure issues that are popping up like minefields
everywhere. We need to look at the
energy production and distribution issues in a holistic approach and then to
decide what to do with the individual segments.
Right now, we rely on private entities to create the
pipeline infrastructure on an individual basis.
Lots of that infrastructure maybe unnecessary if it was done in a
holistic approach. Instead, they are
using the “boom and bust” approach. This
is the way they operate in the energy field.
The problem has been that during bust periods, safety suffers because of
the cost-cutting measures.