Lawsuit: Companies failed to properly inspect, repair gas pipeline in fatal KY explosion
The operator of a natural gas pipeline that blew up in Kentucky a year ago failed to properly maintain the line and repair corrosion, a lawsuit filed Thursday alleged.
Corrosion is among the potential causes of the blast that the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
Another federal agency, the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said in a report issued in April that there were defects in the pipeline that the operator had missed.
The report did not say the defects — hard spots in the metal that can develop into failure points — caused the blast, but the agency did order the operator to review 20 years’ worth of tests to see if there could be similar conditions elsewhere along the line.
The lawsuit filed Thursday listed more than 80 people who suffered physical injuries or property damage in the blast, which happened in Lincoln County, near Junction City.
The explosion blew a 30-foot section of the heavy pipe nearly 500 feet and touched off a fire that destroyed five homes in a nearby mobile-home park, damaged more than a dozen other homes and burned 30 acres.
As residents fled the searing heat, 58-year-old Lisa Derringer died and six other people were injured badly enough to be hospitalized, according to a federal report.
Others reportedly had less serious injuries.
The pipeline that failed is one of three 30-inch diameter lines that run parallel a few feet apart from each other through Kentucky, carrying gas from from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northeast.
It is operated by Texas Eastern Transmission LP, a subsidiary of Canadian energy company Enbridge.
The lawsuit is against those two companies and several others, as well as an unnamed operator of Texas Eastern’s compressor station near Danville.
People at the compressor station closed off the line just past the blast site and Texas Eastern also shut it down elsewhere, but only “eventually and after delay” in both places, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit cites a number of alleged failures by Enbridge, Texas Eastern and others, including failing to properly design, build and maintain the line; failing to identify and correct hazardous conditions; operating the pipeline at a dangerously high pressure; and not having an adequate emergency plan.
The lawsuit listed a number of previous explosions along the Texas Eastern line, including one in Metcalfe County in April 1985 that killed five people and another in Garrard County in February 1986 that injured six people.
The spot that erupted Aug. 1, 2019 in Lincoln County was about 10 miles from the Garrard County failure more than 30 years before, the lawsuit said.
The people suing over last year’s blast experienced not just physical injuries but emotional and mental pain and suffering, as well as health expenses, lost work and wages, and the ability to work in the future, the lawsuit claimed.
It seeks an unspecified amount of money to compensate them and punish the pipeline operators. Danville attorney Ephraim W. Helton represents the plaintiffs.
Enbridge did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Federal authorities have not finished the investigation of the explosion.
A spokeswoman said Enbridge had no comment on the lawsuit.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 3:50 PM.
