National Transportation Safety Board urges stricter pipeline standards

The head of the nation's accident investigation agency urged the oil and gas industry to support stricter pipeline standards after touring the site of the country's deadliest pipeline disaster in decades. "Very few of our citizens know in how close a proximity they live, work, and in this case, play to these pipelines," said Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Eleven people were killed and another was critically injured when a pipeline exploded near their campsite along the Pecos River south of Carlsbad. The blast sent a fireball 350 feet into the sky and shot flames over the campers. A preliminary investigation found corrosion in one section of the El Paso Energy pipeline, though no official cause for the explosion has been determined.
Sections of the same pipeline run near schools, playgrounds and other populated areas, Hall said. Kelley Coyner, who oversees pipeline safety for the Department of Transportation, described the more than 2 mm miles of pipeline in the United States as an ageing infrastructure laid 40 to 50 years ago.

"We risk facing more of these tragedies unless we act," Coyner said. The NTSB has been pushing for stricter pipeline safety regulations since 1985, Hall said. He said a proposal backed by the agency and now before Congress would require internal inspection of pipelines, additional training for company employees responsible for pipeline safety, automatic shut-off valves that can quickly isolate pipeline ruptures, and the use of tougher steel in the manufacture of new pipelines.
Overseeing the industry isn't easy, Hall said. He said the pipeline safety agency, funded by fees assessed on the oil and gas industry, is severely under-funded and has only 55 inspectors to cover the 2 mm miles of pipeline.
El Paso Energy spokesman John Somerhalder said the company "will do what it takes to make sure this kind of incident doesn't happen again." But he stopped short of endorsing the NTSB recommendations. He said the company supports safetyregulations that are realistic.
Somerhalder said that the budget for pipeline inspection and technical support will more than double to $ 34 mm next year and that the industry has spent $ 4 mm on a program to improve pipeline inspections. "That is a good-sized research program," Somerhalder said.