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Fyi -More articles on the Senate Pipeline Safety Hearing held in Bellingham
Washington ---------------------- Forwarded by Michael Terraso/OTS/Enron on 03/14/2000 07:30 AM --------------------------- "Terry D. Boss" <tboss@INGAA.org< on 03/14/2000 10:01:29 AM To: "Dave Johnson (E-mail)" <David.L.Johnson@enron.com<, "Mike Terraso (E-mail)" <mterras@enron.com< cc: Subject: Articles on Yesterday's hearings from Seattle Papers State wins OK to inspect pipelines by Brier Dudley Seattle Times staff reporter [IMAGE] BELLINGHAM - Federal regulators yesterday agreed to allow Washington state to inspect all interstate pipelines within its borders, as requested by Gov. Gary Locke and the state Legislature. "We've got it - we've just got to work out the fine details," Locke said. State officials think they'll do a better job inspecting the 2,500 miles of pipelines in the state than the federal Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), an agency that's been harshly criticized since Olympic Pipe Line's June 10 explosion in Bellingham that killed three people. Other states have tried unsuccessfully to take control of pipeline inspections from the OPS, which has only 13 inspectors for the West Coast, but only four states now have that authority. Still unresolved, however, is whether the state will be allowed to impose safety standards stricter than federal standards. The state's authority could also be short-lived if the OPS and the oil industry persuade Congress later this year to reduce states' role in pipeline oversight. Mixed messages about the safety office's position were delivered yesterday at a special Senate field hearing on pipeline-safety concerns. Locke announced that the state was given testing authority, based on a faxed letter he received just hours earlier from the top administrator for pipeline safety. The fax said the state could take over inspections on condition that only one state agency were responsible. A state law approved last week would have divided the task between two. But later in the hearing, OPS' deputy administrator, Richard Felder, acknowledged under questioning that he would prefer that inspection authority remain with his office. To sidestep that debate, U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., proposed amending the federal law that gives the OPS authority over pipelines that cross state lines. Because Olympic Pipe Line is almost entirely in Washington - its 400-mile system parallels Interstate 5 and ends in Portland - Gorton suggested that states be allowed to regulate pipelines that are over 90 percent within their borders. Olympic, a Renton-based subsidiary of Shell, Texaco, Arco and oil shipper GATX, testified that it would prefer federal oversight. "Having a unified set of regulations is important for a smooth operation," said manager Carl Gast. Gorton and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., hosts of the hearing, both want the state to have more authority over interstate pipelines. They're backing legislation that would give states authority and funding to inspect pipelines themselves and require better collection and sharing of data about pipelines' condition. They also want the stricter standards on pipeline testing, monitoring and operations. Murray, whose twin sister teaches at a Bellingham school near the explosion site, noted that pipelines have spilled 5,700 times and killed 325 people in the U.S. since 1986. She also said they leak 6 million gallons of hazardous material a year, or the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every two years. During the hearing at Bellingham City Hall, the senators also heard emotional pleas for stricter regulations from victims' parents. Two 10-year-old boys and an 18-year-old fisherman died after Olympic spilled 277,000 gallons of gasoline into a city park. "There needs to be a zero-spill policy, not `we only kill two or three kids a year,' " said Frank King, whose 10-year-old, Wade, died in the explosion. Katherine Dalen, mother of 10-year-old victim Stephen Tsorvias, said the accident made people realize their neighborhoods may not be safe because of the poorly regulated underground pipelines. Also testifying were city officials from Renton, SeaTac and Bellevue. Like Bellingham, those cities are trying to get Olympic to provide more information and testing to assure residents that the pipeline is safe. Olympic's Gast noted that the company will use two devices to internally inspect its entire pipeline later this year. The cause of the accident is still being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, which has been hampered by Olympic employees' refusal to testify and by a federal criminal investigation into the accident. Copyright , 2000 The Seattle Times Company Pipeline blast still evokes anger Grieving parents urge senators to pass tough safety bill Tuesday, March 14, 2000 By SCOTT SUNDE Mail Author SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER BELLINGHAM -- Nine months have passed since Bruce Brabec's stepson died in a horrific pipeline accident here. But the memories haven't faded. Photo ? Mary King weeps as her husband, Frank, testifies yesterday at a Senate field hearing in Bellingham on pipeline safety. Their son, Wade, died in the June pipeline explosion. Dan DeLong/P-I ? The smell of gasoline when Brabec fills the family car reminds him of the fumes that killed Liam Wood, who was 18 and out for a day of flyfishing on June 10. The sound of the newspaper hitting the front porch every morning reminds Brabec of when police arrived to tell him and his wife that Liam had been overcome by fumes from leaking gasoline and drowned. "Imagine going home tonight, and your child isn't home -- and never will be," Brabec told U.S. Sens. Slade Gorton and Patty Murray during a Senate field hearing on pipeline safety yesterday. ? Getting involved The public may mail written comments on improving pipeline safety to the Senate Commerce Committee, 508 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510. Anger and anguish mixed freely at the hearing, which Gorton, a Republican, hopes will bolster efforts to win approval for a tough pipeline safety bill introduced by Democrat Murray. The hearing in Bellingham's Depression-era City Hall attracted an overflow crowd. Townsfolk were forced to huddle around television sets and watch the proceedings in the lobby. Their frequent applause at the angry words drifted up the stairs and into the crowded hearing room. State and local officials blasted the federal Office of Pipeline Safety as ineffective. It regulates interstate pipelines such as the one owned by Olympic Pipe Line Co. that ruptured and caught fire in Bellingham last June. There was anger, too, at Olympic. Officials from cities through which the pipeline runs said the company had resisted supplying them with data from pipe inspections, then agreed by providing "X's and O's" that no one could understand. "We have no confidence," said Connie Marshall, Bellevue's deputy mayor, "that the Olympic pipeline is safely maintained and operated within our city." The company, however, pledged a safer pipeline, pointing to a plan instituted in October to add valves, test pressure, strengthen computer processing and make sophisticated internal inspections. The company is trying to improve any system that may have been at fault in the June 10 accident, said Carl Gast, Olympic vice president and manager. "We are not waiting until after the investigation (by the National Transportation Safety Board) is complete to take action," Gast said. Gast, who has worked in the pipeline industry for 31 years, called the company's safety plan "the most far-reaching with which I've ever been involved." Olympic runs a 400-mile system that takes petroleum products from refineries north of Bellingham and at Anacortes to Portland. The system runs near the Interstate 5 corridor, including through the suburbs east of Lake Washington. The victims: Wade King: The 10-year-old burned to death while playing in Whatcom Creek when it erupted in a fireball June 10. Stephen Tsorvias: Also, 10, he was playing with Wade when gasoline ignited after spilling from a ruptured Olympic Pipe Line fuel line. Liam Wood: The 18-year-old was flyfishing on the creek when he was overcome by leaking gasoline fumes and drowned. The anguish at the hearing came from the parents of Wood and parents of two 10-year-old boys -- Wade King and Stephen Tsorvias -- who burned to death as 277,000 gallons of spilled gasoline ignited and a fireball roared down Whatcom Creek. At times, "sadness tears our hearts apart and drowns our spirits," said Katherine Dalen, Stephen's mother. Marlene Robinson, Liam's mother, said softly: "I no longer have children to protect." They, too, were angry at Olympic and at the Office of Pipeline Safety. The boys' families have filed wrongful-death lawsuits against Olympic. Frank King, Wade's father, made it clear yesterday whom he blames for the tragedy. "The company is an outrage. It needs to be shut down," King said. "Olympic's gross, wanton recklessness killed my little man." King said he has evidence that Olympic had a chance in July 1997 to dig up the pipe where it would later rupture to check for possible problems, but decided not to because the excavation would be too difficult. Bellingham has a water plant near the site of the rupture and numerous water pipes are above the pipeline. In an interview, King produced an Olympic document gathered for his lawsuit that he said indicated that the company decided not to dig up the pipe. In 1996 and 1997, Olympic did an internal inspection of its pipeline. Possible defects were identified in the inspections near where the pipe would later rupture. But Olympic has said the possible defects did not seem serious enough to dig up the pipeline near the water plant. Olympic Pipe Line spokeswoman Maggie Brown said King's testimony marked the first time she had ever heard the claim that the company was prepared to dig up that section of pipe in 1997 but decided not to. King's wife, Mary, erupted in frustration that the accident was allowed to happen. "If this is properly maintained, regulated, whatever, it won't happen again," she said tearfully. "Anything is going to be better than what went on in the past, which was nothing." In fact, pipeline regulation may be changing. The Washington Legislature passed a bill this year that sets up a state pipeline safety program and asks the federal government for the power to police interstate lines like Olympic's. Gov. Gary Locke told Gorton and Murray yesterday that the federal government may be willing to give the state the authority to inspect interstate pipelines. Four states currently have that authority, but the federal government still retains the right to punish pipeline companies over problems found in inspections. A top official of the U.S. Transportation Department told Locke in a letter yesterday that the federal government may give Washington inspection authority. Locke, however, also wants the state to have the authority to regulate pipelines and to use tougher standards than the federal rules to do so. Murray's bill would give the states more authority. Richard Felder, head of the Office of Pipeline Safety, admitted that his regulators have had problems. "We worked to restore public confidence," Felder said, "but clearly we have a long way to go." Felder said the office's proposed budget would provide it with more money for regulation. He also said his office will propose a new regulation by the end of the month to require companies to test the safety of their pipelines. Gorton and Murray, however, seemed unconvinced that federal regulators will get tough. So was Bob Chipkovitch, who runs the pipeline program at the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB, which has no regulatory authority, has repeatedly recommended tougher rules, only to see nothing happen in the Office of Pipeline Safety, he said. For example, 12 years after the NTSB recommended that regulators require periodic inspections, no such rule has been adopted. "I hope Bellingham has made a difference," Chipkovitch said. "No, we haven't seen a change yet (by regulators). But I hope this accident does provide the impetus to do that." The NTSB has yet to determine the cause of the June 10 accident. But Chipkovitch said the investigation so far has shown "significant performance failures" by pipeline controllers. He noted that the pipeline rupture began at 3:30 p.m. June 10 after a pump failure near Woodinville, computer problems at the company's Renton headquarters and a valve closed near Anacortes. But 45 minutes later, refineries north of Bellingham resumed putting gasoline in the line. Controllers only started shutting down the pipeline for good at 4:30. At the point where the pipeline ruptured, there may be evidence of external damage, Chipkovitch said. Olympic contends that construction at the water plant in 1994 damaged the pipe. But investigators have yet to fully test the damaged pipe. A federal criminal investigation into the accident has kept them from doing so. At the same time, several Olympic officials have refused to talk to the NTSB, fearing they would incriminate themselves. Chipkovitch said the investigation also focuses on the valve near Anacortes that closed June 10, increasing pressure in the pipe upstream. The valve closed 50 times in the six months before the Bellingham accident, he said. Pipeline accidents Some of the country's largest pipeline accidents in recent years: June 10, 1999: The Olympic Pipe Line Co.'s pipeline in Bellingham ruptured and 277,000 gallons of jet fuel spilled into Whatcom Creek, then ignited (above), killing two 10-year-old boys and an 18-year-old fisherman. It was the 43rd reported spill on the line since it was opened in 1965. November 1996: Propane from a leaking gas-service pipe exploded in downtown San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing 33 people and injuring 69 others. August 1996: A pipeline carrying liquid butane ruptured in Lively, Texas, sending a butane vapor cloud into a residential area. Two residents tried to escape, but their vehicle's ignition started a fire that killed them. June 1996: A fuel oil line ruptured near Fork Shoals, S.C., spilling 958,000 gallons into the Reedy River. May 1996: A gasoline pipeline near Gramercy, La., ruptured and spilled 475,000 gallons of fuel into wetlands and a river. February 1994: A natural-gas pipeline exploded in Edison, N.J., destroying three apartment buildings and leaving 1,500 people homeless. August 1989: Soil tests result in the discovery of a decades-long spill in an Avila Beach, Calif., pipeline which Union Oil Co. had used for almost 90 years. The entire commercial center of the town was razed in the cleanup effort, which is continuing (left). Another pipeline nearby was found to have leaked more than 9 million gallons of crude oil over a 50-year period. Unocal has agreed to pay more than $48 million in cleanup costs. May 1989: A gasoline pipeline ruptured in San Bernardino, Calif., killing two people and destroying 11 homes. December 1980: A corroded line carrying naphtha ruptured in Long Beach, Calif. The flammable substance sprayed 20 feet into the air, then ignited, injuring 5 and destroying or damaging 12 homes. ? P-I reporter Scott Sunde can be reached at 206-448-8331 or scottsunde@seattle-pi.com Confidential: INGAA Member Use only Terry D. Boss VP Environment Safety and Operations INGAA tboss@ingaa.org ?
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