Fyi - Mike
---------------------- Forwarded by Michael Terraso/OTS/Enron on 03/14/2000 
07:22 AM ---------------------------


"Terry D. Boss" <tboss@INGAA.org> on 03/14/2000 09:56:15 AM
To: "Dave Johnson (E-mail)" <David.L.Johnson@enron.com>, ""Mike Terraso 
(E-mail)" <mterras@enron.com>, ""Tilford Vik (E-mail)" <tvik@enron.com>
cc: " "Max Brown (E-mail)" <mbrown@enron.com>, 

Subject: As Predicted, the USA Today Article on Pipelines




	03/13/00- Updated 11:56 PM ET
	
	?
	

	
	When pipelines  are time bombs
	
	2 million miles of them deliver potential catastrophe every  day
	
	By Patrick McMahon, USA TODAY
	
	BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Last summer, an underground pipeline ruptured in a  city 
park here and sent a torrent of gasoline along a wooded streambed  toward two 
10-year-olds playing with a barbecue lighter.
	
	After the  16-inch pipeline had been hemorrhaging for an hour and 34 minutes, 
an  explosion sent a fireball racing through the park. A plume of smoke rose  
30,000 feet.
	
	Authorities say the blast probably was triggered by a  spark from the lighter.
	
	"There was a spark and the sky turned  orange, the boys both told me 
afterward," says Frank King, whose son,  Wade, was one of the boys in the 
park. Wade and his friend, Stephen  Tsiorvas, were burned over 90% of their 
bodies. They died the next  day.
	
	Also killed was 18-year-old Liam Wood, who had graduated from  high school 
five days before. The college-bound Wood was fly-fishing in  the park when he 
was overcome by fumes, fell into the creek and  drowned.
	
	"To many people, the boys were considered heroes," says  Mark Asmundson, the 
mayor of this seaside city north of Seattle. In  sparking the explosion, the 
boys kept the most extensive damage confined  to the 241-acre park, he says. 
"The river of gasoline was heading right  for the center of the city." 
	
	On Monday, the Senate Commerce  Committee held a one-day hearing here, about 
five minutes from where the  incident occurred, on legislation to improve 
safety and government  oversight of pipelines and the companies that operate 
them. The hearing  included gripping, sometimes tearful, testimony from the 
boys' parents as  well as statements from state and federal officials.
	
	"My baby died  because of inaction. His death was preventable," said 
Katherine Dalen,  Stephen's mother.
	
	More than 2 million miles of iron, steel and  plastic pipes - some as large 
as 5 feet in diameter - snake beneath the  earth and deliver oil, gasoline, 
natural gas and potential disaster across  America every day. They range from 
the trans-Alaskan pipeline to tiny  pipes carrying natural gas to people's 
homes. Safer than gasoline trucks  or ocean-going tankers by most measures, 
once-remote pipelines are  prompting new worries as sprawling metropolitan 
areas grow into their  paths.
	
	U.S. pipeline accidents have fluctuated in the past 10  years. In the 1990s, 
there were 3,917 liquid fuel spills and natural gas  leaks, roughly one a 
day. The incidents, most involving local lines  carrying natural gas, 
resulted in 201 deaths, 2,826 injuries and $778  million in property damage 
from 1990 through 1999.
	
	There also are  environmental costs. In January, one of the nation's largest 
pipeline  companies, Koch Industries of Wichita, Kan., paid a $30 million 
civil fine  to settle Environmental Protection Agency water-pollution 
charges  involving 300 oil spills from 1990 to 1997. The EPA said Koch failed 
to  inspect its pipelines and waited for leaks before making  repairs.
	
	Liam Wood's mother, Marlene Robinson, is focused on  stronger regulations 
nationwide, including more and better inspections,  and regional watchdog 
committees. 
	
	"I don't have any children left  to protect," she said in an interview and 
repeated at the hearing. "This  didn't have to happen to Liam, and it doesn't 
have to happen to other  people's children."
	
	Although the cause of the Bellingham incident  remains under investigation, 
one factor might have been damage to the  pipeline from a backhoe when a 
water line was being installed in 1995. But  investigators also have many 
questions about the role of Olympic Pipeline  Co., which operates a network 
of pipelines along a 299-mile corridor from  north of Bellingham to Portland, 
Ore.
	
	Investigators for the  National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) want to 
know whether Olympic  ignored warning signs and whether it could have acted 
more swiftly after  the leak. But the inquiry has been delayed by a parallel 
investigation by  the U.S. Attorney's Office. Several Olympic employees have 
declined to  testify and have invoked their constitutional rights against  
self-incrimination. 
	
	Pipeline owners and government regulators  defend the safety of transporting 
two-thirds of the nation's fuels by  pipeline, and they warn that more rules 
could boost energy prices. Critics  say pipelines are too loosely regulated, 
not fully inspected and, in some  cases, deteriorating.
	
	The U.S. Transportation Department oversees  pipelines. Its Office of 
Pipeline Safety sets standards for design,  operation, maintenance and 
emergency response. Richard Felder, who heads  the office, testified at 
Monday's hearing. "Our goal is to prevent  incidents like Bellingham from 
ever happening again," he said.
	
	In  an earlier interview, he defended his office's performance and the  
industry: "It's a good record. It's the safest form of transporting fuel,  
far and away."
	
	The office has extensive rules on pipeline safety,  including requirements 
for signs along the route and programs to alert  potential diggers, but 
"there's no such thing as risk elimination," Felder  says. "All you can do is 
manage it." 
	
	But the chairman of the  federal government's transportation safety watchdog 
agency is unimpressed  with Felder's office and says it deserves a grade of 
F. "It's been the  most frustrating area I've had to deal with as chairman," 
says Jim Hall,  NTSB chairman since 1994. He says no agency has a worse 
record of  responding to NTSB recommendations.
	
	In a recent speech, he said  there's no indication that the Office of 
Pipeline Safety "is in charge or  that its regulations, its inspections, its 
assets, its staffing and its  spirit are adequate to the task." 
	
	Felder takes issue with much of  the criticism, but he endorses calls for 
more research into pipeline  safety. He said his office is in the final 
stages of preparing new safety  standards for heavily populated and 
environmentally sensitive  areas.
	
	He emphasized that the leading cause of pipeline failure is  "third-party 
damage" from road, utility and construction work. The agency  has worked to 
enhance a system to alert pipeline companies of digging with  one telephone 
call.
	
	Felder is critical of local authorities who  ignore pipelines when making 
decisions on housing and commercial  development. "Local planning has not 
kept people away from pipelines," he  says. "It's astounding to me."
	
	Felder bristles at critics'  suggestions that his agency is a tool of the oil 
and gas industry. "I  can't agree with that one iota," he says. "We try to 
balance the safety  issue and the economic issue."
	
	The Senate Commerce Committee will  consider a bipartisan bill sponsored by 
Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and  Slade Gorton, R-Wash.; Rep. Jack Metcalf, 
the Republican who represents  Bellingham; and Rep. Jay Inslee, a Democrat 
whose district includes an  operating section of the pipeline. 
	
	The bill would require periodic  internal inspections of pipelines, boost 
federal spending on research,  increase the number of federal pipeline 
inspectors nationwide - there now  are 55 - and expand states' regulatory 
authority. On Monday, the Office of  Pipeline Safety gave the state of 
Washington the temporary right to do  more inspections.
	
	The Murray-Gorton bill also would require federal  certification of pipeline 
workers and expand the public's right to know  about spills and leaks. 
	
	"I was totally shocked and amazed when  this happened," Murray says. "You 
always assume that your neighborhood is  safe and somebody has taken care of 
this."
	
	The Bellingham rupture  not only dumped 278,000 gallons of gasoline into this 
city of 63,000 near  the Canadian border but also unleashed civic furor at 
Olympic Pipeline.  "It's hard for people to get interested in things they 
can't see. Out of  sight is out of mind," Mayor Asmundson says. He has 
visited the boys'  grieving families and lobbied Congress. The blast "has 
dominated my life  since June 10."
	
	Pipeline operators portray accidents as isolated to  escape national 
scrutiny, he says. "The whole focus of the industry is  containment. Do 
whatever you have to do locally, but don't stir things up  nationally."
	
	Last week, Murray released a report she requested from  the Transportation 
Department's inspector general. It faults the Office of  Pipeline Safety for 
ignoring enhanced safety requirements, including  increased inspections 
inside pipes, in highly populated and  environmentally sensitive areas as 
Congress required in 1992 and 1996.  
	
	A U.S. General Accounting Office audit of operations is due in  May. Also 
pending is a decision from Felder and the pipeline safety office  on whether 
to restart the 39-mile section shut down since the Bellingham  accident. 
Olympic Pipeline has repaired the line and is eager to reopen  it.
	
	People living along the route and officials are pushing for  more extensive 
testing of the still-operating section of the line south of  Bellingham. 
Felder says he has not decided whether it should be shut down.  
	
	Last week, Felder's office ordered a new round of testing along  the entire 
line, but critics such as Inslee are not convinced it will be  enough. The 
tests must be conducted on the closed section of the pipeline  before a 
decision is made on reopening it.
	
	Contributing: Scott  Hillkirk
	


Confidential: INGAA Member Use  only 

Terry D. Boss 
VP Environment Safety and Operations 
INGAA 
tboss@ingaa.org 
?