An effective and forceful response to the Firestone tragedy
In April, an unthinkable tragedy in Firestone killed two men, badly injured a woman, forever changed the lives of their families, and shocked the state. The accidental house explosion, linked to a decades-old severed natural gas flowline, broke the hearts of anyone who heard the story of the Martinez and Irwin families.
From a public safety standpoint, the incident demanded a swift, serious and comprehensive response from state regulators and industry.
That is precisely what happened. But few understand the true size and scope of the response to the Firestone tragedy. While it does not diminish the tragedy itself — for nothing could — the state’s sweeping response is a story that needs to be told.
Gov. John Hickenlooper and state regulators immediately ordered a statewide inspection and testing program in response to the early findings of investigators. Using their authority under the state’s regulations for pipelines and flowlines carrying oil and natural gas, Colorado offi-
cials gave oil and gas operators less than two months to complete this enormous undertaking.
In effect, the state ordered operators to get back into the field and re-check the results of earlier routine inspections of oil and gas facilities, and to conduct additional testing of the lowpressure flowlines that run between pieces of equipment at well sites. Operators also were required to provide the GPS coordinates to every inspected flowline in order to create a flowline location system.
For operators, compliance required the physical inspection of more than 120,000 individual flowlines, according to data compiled by state regulators. The combined length of these lines likely reaches into the thousands of miles. The small number of lines that didn’t pass inspection — roughly 400 — have been repaired, sealed off or completely removed. This means the compliance rate was greater than 99.6 percent.
The extremely low failure rate — a fraction of 1 percent — surprised some activists, who have used the Firestone tragedy to push for a complete shutdown of oil and gas permitting. “All things considered, 1 percent is not bad,” one activist told The Greeley Tribune after preliminary inspection results were released. “I might have expected worse.”
I have spoken with many oil and gas professionals about the state’s response to the Firestone tragedy. What always stands out is this: These are good people who care deeply about their communities and take pride in their work.
They were shocked by the Firestone tragedy. Their anguish remains. But I have also witnessed a stoic determination to support the rigorous inspection and testing program ordered by the state. Hundreds of industry employees have been reassigned to work on nothing else. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent, ultimately, complying with the state’s orders.
What we have seen in Colorado in recent months is impressive; it was, in effect, a vast rulemaking, implementation and enforcement process all rolled into one. The scope of the regulatory action is unprecedented and the speed has been astonishing. I have seen nothing like it as a state senator, utility professional or as a representative of the business community; it reminds me of military maneuvers I took part in as a young paratrooper 26 years ago.
“I am not aware of another state that has this caliber of flowline data,” Hickenlooper said at a recent press conference. The “comprehensive” response from energy and public health regulators demanded “a tremendous amount of work” from the both public and private sectors, he said.
What happened in Firestone was unprecedented and “hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be spent” making sure it never happens again, according to the governor. “This is about as close to ‘never’ as you’re going to get,” he told reporters as he described the state’s program of inspections, tests and other regulatory actions for flowlines.
We await more information. But for now, let there be no doubt that state officials have responded forcefully, effectively and with great urgency to the tragedy in Firestone.