The natural gas pipeline explosion and fireball that engulfed a few blocks of the town of San Bruno, California several days ago was a shocking event. Shocking not only for the residents of the small city overlooking the San Francisco International Airport, but also to natural gas utility regulators, PG&E executives, and the nation as a whole.
As shell-shocked residents were allowed back into their fire-damaged neighborhood they were confronted with a war zone landscape – houses burned to the ground, roads melted, and the deep crater of an explosion, making their environment appear more like war-torn Lebanon in the 1980s rather than the San Francisco area in 2010. At least four deaths were reported, others were missing, almost 40 houses destroyed, and scores more damaged.
What is suprising to many are the following facts: That a 30-inch pressurized gas transmission pipe ran underneath a densely populated urban area; that the pipeline was laid down in 1948, and because of its age was in critical need of being replaced; that a gas leak or gas smells had been reported in the weeks preceding the disaster; and that neither PG&E or industry regulators anticipated a major explosion and fire.
As Hoover’s analysts and First Research editors who cover the utility industry can attest, the infrastructure of the oil and gas industry has many pipelines that are antiquated and in need of repair. More than 2.5 million miles of fuel pipelines crisscross the US (carrying natural gas, crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas liquids and other products), and much of it is antiquated. Bloomberg has compiled a list of pipeline failures in recent years. The day before the San Bruno incident, an Enbridge crude oil pipeline leaked near Chicago, forcing a shutdown of a major pipeline that supplies customers in the Midwest. Another Enbridge oil pipeline also ruptured in July 2010, creating a major oil spill in Michigan. However, it is gas pipeline explosions, like the one in San Bruno that have proven to be the most deadly. In 2000, for instance, an El Paso Corp natural gas pipeline ruptured near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The resulting explosion killed 12 campers. The cause of the rupture, corrosion.
Corrosion is the enemy of aging infrastructure. With older pipes lacking the protective technology of modern pipes, moisture will eventually win out in the struggle to maintain structural integrity. Replacing and/or repairing older pipes is a necessity. According to a report in 2009 by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the US would need to invest $2.2 trillion over five years to bring existing infrastructure up to a safe and functionally adequate level. The amount currently budgeted? $975 billion.
How about a stimulus program (with public and private monies) that, with a sense of urgency, would upgrade the country’s aging natural gas, water, and electricity grid infrastructure, employ lots of people, and save some lives?
Sounds like a plan to me. Oh, yes, and let’s throw in some aging highway infrastructure repair (remember the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minnesota?) while we’re at it.
~
Same company that Erin Brockovich sued. Some companies never learn, because they are not shutdown. They are only made to pay money. Business leaders should be put in prison for killing innocent people. They should be treated like the criminals that they are. Just because they wear a suit doesn’t make their acts any less heinous.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/09/15/california.fire/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
Two days before the pipeline explosion, I called 911 to report very a strong natural gas odor. I informed them that I drove from Fremont north on 880 towards Hayward and could smell natural gas in the air very strong in Fremont and a fading scent in Union City. The 911 person was not very interested but offered to transfer me to the Hayward Fire Department. The Hayward Fire Department also did not seem interested.
This is what the state of the union is. We had better get busy. Let’s raise a new tax on gambling and alcohol to finance it. Most people just want to complain but no one wants to pay to replace outdated infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and pipelines. 50 cents a beer could go a long way.
I agree entirely with the need to invest in infrastructure. However, companies and politicians of all stripes are reluctant to commit the kind of money that is needed to overhal the aging systems. It does not generate short term profit or votes.