Rupture a repeat of W.Va. blast
Columbia Gas-affiliated co. behind 2012 incident
A former affiliate of Columbia Gas was hammered by federal regulators after a gas pipeline explosion in 2012 spewed flames for hundreds of feet in every direction, destroying three homes in West Virginia.
The National Transportation Safety Board — now investigating the Columbia Gas fires in the Merrimack Valley — said undetected external corrosion on a 20inch natural gas pipe caused the rupture and a delayed response from system managers exacerbated the incident in Sissonville, W.Va., on Dec. 11, 2012.
The force of the rupture threw the steel pipe 40 feet from where it was buried under rocky soil. It left a 70-foot crater. System pressure was barely under its maximum rating when the pipe blew. High-pressure gas ignited immediately, and news reports told of a 200-foot fireball at the site of the rupture, according to the NTSB report of the incident.
Still, it took Columbia Gas crews more than an hour to shut off the damaged system.
“When the pipeline ruptured, more than 1 hour passed before field personnel completed closing all the SM-80 system valves, which isolated the rupture location from the gas supply,” NTSB investigators wrote. “Automatic shutoff valves would most likely have shortened that time.”
Little is known about what caused the explosions in Andover, Lawrence and North Andover, as crews and first responders spent Thursday night and most of yesterday scouring the towns home-by-home to make sure gas was turned off.
Columbia Gas on Thursday announced it would be upgrading gas lines across the state to add safety features, increase reliability and cut back on future maintenance.
The announcement listed four projects “in progress” for Andover, two “in progress” and one “starting soon” for North Andover, and three “in progress” and one “starting soon” for Lawrence.
Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday declared a state of emergency in the three towns and removed Columbia Gas from handling the response. Andover Town Manager Andrew Flanagan said his phone calls to Columbia have been “unreturned and questions unanswered.” Eversource Energy has been placed in charge of the situation.
In Massachusetts, Columbia Gas delivers gas to 321,000 homes and businesses in 65 towns and cities in the Lawrence, Brockton and Springfield areas. The majority of its customers are residential.
Facing what it said were escalating costs to increase safety and reliability of its system, Columbia Gas filed a request in April to raise rates for its customers by $45 million.
Attorney General Maura Healey’s office intervened in the rate case and, together with other parties, got the company to settle for a $33.2 million boosting rates.
Chief executive Stephen H. Bryant said in written testimony the additional money was needed to comply with “stringent publicsafety regulations set by federal and state regulators” and to “mitigate operating risks during day-today service to customers.”
Since 2010, Columbia Gas has been fined $100,000 by the Department of Public Utilities for safety violations seven times, including: the failure to provide crew with adequate maps/records, inability to produce records regarding welding qualifications, inadequate gas standards and improper pressure testing, insufficient cover (lines must be at a depth of 18 inches) for new service line, leakage classification and response procedures, corrosion control, and failing to follow its procedures and federal pipeline safety regulations with regard to the use of a leak repair kit.