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 
?