Infrastructure / U.S. gas pipeline networkGrowing concerns about U.S. aging gas pipeline network
A disturbing realization has emerged from the wreckage of a deadly pipeline explosion in California: There are thousands of pipes just like it across the United States; experts say that pipes of some age were put in the ground before the dense population arrived and now the dense population is right over the pipes; thousands of pipelines across the United States fit the bill, and serious incidents are not infrequent; federal officials have recorded 2,840 significant gas pipeline accidents since 1990, more than a third causing deaths and significant injuries
An ominous theme has emerged from the wreckage of a deadly pipeline explosion in California: There are thousands of pipes just like it across the United States.
Utilities have been under pressure for years to do a better job of inspecting and replacing aging gas pipes. Many of them were laid years before the suburbs expanded over them and now are at risk of leaking or erupting.
Garance Burke and Jason Dearen write in the Washington Post that the effort has fallen short. Critics say the regulatory system is ripe for problems because the government leaves it up to companies to do inspections and utilities are reluctant to spend the money necessary to fix and replace pipelines properly.
“If this was the [Federal Aviation Administration] and air travel we were talking about, I wouldn’t get on a plane,” said Rick Kessler, who specialized in pipeline safety issues as a congressional staff member and now works for the Pipeline Safety Trust, an advocacy group based in Bellingham, Washington.
Investigators are trying to figure out how a pipeline ruptured this month in San Bruno, and ignited a gigantic fireball that torched one home after another, killing at least four people. Pacific Gas and Electric, the pipeline’s owner, said it is setting aside up to $100 million to help residents recover.
Burke and Dearen quote experts to say that the California disaster epitomizes the risks that communities face with old gas lines. The pipe was more than fifty years old, right around the life expectancy for steel pipes. It was part of a transmission line that had an “unacceptably high” risk of failure. What is more, it was in a densely populated area.
The blast was the latest in a series of deadly infrastructure failures in recent years, including a bridge collapse in Minneapolis and a steam pipe explosion that tore open a Manhattan street in 2007. The steam pipe that ruptured was more than eighty years old.
The section of pipeline that ruptured in San Bruno was built in 1956, when the neighborhood had a handful of homes. Christopher Hart , vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the expansion of the suburbs created a safety problem that exists elsewhere across the nation.
“That’s an issue we’re going to have to look on a bigger scale, situations in which pipes of some age were put in before the dense population arrived and now the dense population is
