Selected Incidents Allentown Kalamazoo Yellowstone San Bruno

San Bruno, Calif. Organizational Deficiencies and Weld Flaws On the evening of Sept. 9, 2010 a natural gas pipeline ruptured, spewing almost 50 million cubic feet of gas into the air. The resulting 300-foot flames quickly engulfed the neighborhood, killing eight people, injuring dozens and damaging or destroying over 100 homes. While police and firefighters arrived within minutes of the explosion, it took 95 minutes for the pipeline operator to stop the flow of escaping gas. A year long investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board blamed the accident on Pacific Gas and Electric Company's inadequate quality control and testing of the over 50 year old pipeline, calling it an "organizational accident." Investigators found defects in the pipeline seam welds, which burst after pressure in the pipeline rose to 396 pounds per square inch.

Allentown, Pa. Aging Pipelines A old gas line running beneath Allen Street exploded on Feb. 9, 2011, igniting a fire that killed five people including a four-month-old boy and an elderly couple. Over fifty homes and businesses were damaged and hundreds of residents were forced outside into 27 degree weather. The Allen Street pipeline, which was made out of cast-iron, was installed in 1928. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission investigators said that the operator, UGI Utilities, failed to adequately monitor its lines and fix aging pipelines that showed signs of damage. A recent joint settlement proposal has UGI paying a $386,000 fine and accelerating the replacement of its cast iron pipes.

Yellowstone River Fast Moving Spills of Crude A 12-inch wide pipeline owned by ExxonMobil ruptured, dumping 63,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River on July 1, 2011. Over a hundred people from the nearby town of Laurel, Montana were evacuated because officials were afraid of an explosion. The Department of Transportation estimated that the oil spread up to 240 miles downstream. Later reports raised the possibility that this pipeline may have sometimes carried tar sands crude, which environmentalists claim can be more damaging to a pipeline because of its corrosive chemical compounds, as well as more toxic to people and wildlife.

Kalamazoo River Corrosion, Cracks, and Millions in Clean Up On July 26, 2010 an Enbridge Energy pipeline spilled over 840,000 gallons of heavy crude into the Kalmazoo River. A federal report said that Enbridge made numerous missteps that contributed to the 80-inch rupture in the corroding pipeline. These missteps included a failure to ensure the safety of the pipe (corrosion-fatigue cracks in this pipeline were documented for years, but never fixed) as well as an inadequate response once the pipeline did fail (alarms went of for 17 hours before Enbridge realized what was happening). Hundreds of Michigan residents suffered health effects related to toxic exposure from the oil, and clean up costs are estimated at $800 million, making this accident the most expensive on-shore spill in U.S. history.

■ Hazardous Liquid Lines

■ Gas Transmission Lines

See Pipelines z