Government Assailed on Pipeline Safety

An increase in major ruptures of natural gas and fuel pipelines is due to poor government oversight and inadequate industry inspection of the nation’s labyrinth of aging pipes, federal safety officials said Wednesday.

The problem has gained nationwide attention because of two high-profile accidents: Twelve members of two families camping in New Mexico were killed earlier this year when a 50-year-old natural gas pipeline exploded. And three youths died in Washington state in 1999 when gasoline leaking from a pipeline built in 1966 ignited a creek.

At a special hearing Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board called on pipeline operators to develop a standardized system of inspections and adopt better technology to detect weaknesses and leaks in pipes.

It also criticized the federal Office of Pipeline Safety--a Transportation Department agency--for failing to act on repeated warnings and recommendations from the NTSB. The agency can recommend, but not order, corrective measures.

“To the average American, pipelines are out of sight and out of mind,” NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said. “We’re hoping to increase awareness . . . so we can have a meaningful level of inspections and oversight.”

Hundreds of industry representatives attended the NTSB hearing in a sign of concern about the criticism that in recent months has been leveled against their companies and the potential for stricter regulation.

Earlier this year, a report requested by Congress found that major pipeline accidents had increased at a rate of about 4% a year from 1989 to 1998--killing 226 people, injuring more than 1,000 and causing $700 million in property damage. Nonetheless, it remains much safer to ship fuel by pipeline than by truck or barge.

This month, the Office of Pipeline Safety issued new regulations to improve inspections of oil pipelines. It plans to institute rules for natural gas lines next year. There are about 160,000 miles of liquid fuel pipelines in the country and 2 million miles of natural gas lines.

“We’re not against developing standards, but on some of these issues it’s not that simple,” said Benjamin Cooper, executive director of the Assn. of Oil Pipe Lines.

Companies monitor pipelines in a variety of ways--including by using probes known as “pigs” because of the squealing sound they make after they are inserted in the lines. The simplest of these probes measure whether a pipe is dented. More sophisticated models use magnets or ultrasound to detect corrosion as well. The data is gathered by sensors and fed into computers for analysis.

The NTSB wants to encourage pipeline operators to invest in the new generation of probes, as well as in sensor technology that can alert control rooms when a significant leak occurs. The agency is investigating five serious accidents--including the one in Washington state--in which pipeline operators allowed leaks to continue, possibly because of inaccurate information.

Other countries do better than the United States in pipeline safety, an official of a company that makes the high-tech probes told the NTSB. “The Canadian industry is ahead of the U.S. in going to a systematic approach [for inspections],” said Ravi Krishnamurthy of PII North America Inc.

The New Mexico blast--at a desert site near Carlsbad that was popular with weekend campers--shocked regulators and industry officials alike. Safety board investigators described a crater 86 feet long, 46 feet wide and 20 feet deep. “We found significant internal corrosion at the rupture location,” NTSB investigator Rod Dyck told the board members. The pipeline section that ruptured was built in 1950.