Pipeline explosion released 66 million cubic feet of natural gas. Feds order repairs.
The natural gas pipeline explosion that killed one person and sent six others to the hospital in Lincoln County earlier this month released about 66 million cubic feet of natural gas, according to the federal government.
A corrective action order issued by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Thursday provides some new details about the explosion and explains what Enbridge, the company that owns the pipeline, must do “to protect the public, property, and the environment from potential hazards” associated with the pipeline failure in the coming months.
A 30-foot long section of the pipeline was blown out of the ground, landing about 460 feet away when the pipeline failed about six miles south of Danville at 1:24 a.m. Aug. 1.
The incident, referred to in the order as “the Failure,” left behind a crater that is 13 feet deep, 50 feet long and 35 feet wide.
Aside from the homes and other structures that were destroyed by the fire, the order says 30 acres of land was scorched or burned.
The cause of the pipeline failure is still unknown and will be determined by the National Transportation Safety Board, which will conduct a metallurgical investigation on the pipe, according to the order.
Enbridge, which operates the pipeline through a subsidiary, Texas Eastern Transmission, said the NTSB returned control of the site to the company on Friday.
“Enbridge is mobilizing work crews to the area to begin assessment work on the two natural gas pipelines adjacent to the impacted pipeline,” the company said in a statement.
The order says that those two lines could have been damaged by “the concussive force of the Failure” or by heat from the fire that followed.
The order, signed by Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety Alan Mayberry, states that it would be hazardous for the company to keep operating the three pipelines “without corrective measures.”
“In addition, having considered the uncertainties of the cause of the Failure, the pressure at which gas is transported, the vintage and type of pipe, the risk of fire to the environment and populated areas in the vicinity of the affected segment, and the potential damage to the two adjacent ... pipelines, I find that a failure to issue this order expeditiously to require immediate corrective action would result in the likelihood of serious harm to life, property, or the environment,” Mayberry wrote.
The order specifies that the company must not operate the “isolated segment” of the line — the 19-mile segment that was shut off by closing off mainline valves both upstream and downstream of the explosion Aug. 1 — until it gets authorization from the Office of Pipeline Safety. That restriction also applies to the pipeline on each side.
Enbridge said in a statement Friday that it is “working diligently to comply with the requirements” in the order “and to return to service two adjacent natural gas pipelines near the incident site that were taken out of service as a precautionary safety measure.”
“Enbridge takes these issues very seriously,” the company said in a statement.
The company said it does not have a timeline for when it hopes to begin operating the other two pipelines again but said that “rigorous inspections” will be undertaken first.
“These pipelines will not be returned to service until we satisfy regulatory requirements and it is safe to do so,” the company said.
The order outlines the procedures the company must follow for repairing the pipeline that failed and for restarting operation once the government has given approval for that.
A remedial work plan must be submitted within 90 days. Monthly reports are also required.
In the meantime, the company must reduce the pressure by 20 percent along the entire length of the rest of the pipeline in which the failure occurred.
The order also gives instructions to the company about finding spots along the rest of the pipeline that could have similar problems, and stipulates that within 180 days, the company “must perform an aerial or ground instrumented leakage survey” of the entire 775-mile line. Any leaks that are found must be repaired.
The company must also review its emergency response plan and the actions that it took in response to the pipeline failure and assess its emergency training program and public awareness program, according to the order.
Construction of the pipeline, which is 30 inches in diameter, began in 1942, the order states.
The line carries natural gas between Kosciusko, Miss., and Uniontown, Penn., and is a bi-directional line that flowed south to north until 2014, when Texas Eastern reversed the flow to north to south, according to the order.
The order says the same line that failed in Lincoln County also failed near Morehead on Nov. 2, 2003. In both instances, the pipe that failed was manufactured by a company called A.O. Smith, the order states.
The order says that Texas Eastern performed “in-line inspections” on the line in 2011, 2018 and earlier this year.
“The 2018 tool data indicated a small dent with metal loss that did not require action under federal pipeline safety regulations or (Texas Eastern’s) procedures,” the order states.
The results of the testing that was conducted this year have not yet been provided to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, according to the order.
