Safety valve upgrades proposed for gas lines
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Obama administration moved Wednesday to significantly expand a requirement for utilities to install inexpensive safety valves on gas lines across the U.S. after deadly fires and explosions going back decades that officials and safety advocates said could have been avoided.
The Transportation Department proposal would cover new or replaced natural gas lines serving multifamily dwellings, small businesses and homes not already covered under a 2009 mandate.
The National Transportation Safety Board and other safety advocates have pressed for years to broaden requirements for socalled excess flow valves. The devices cost about $30 apiece for residential use, according to officials, and are designed to automatically shut off the flow of gas when a line is ruptured.
An Associated Press investigation in 2012 uncovered more than 270 accidents dating to 1968 that could have been averted or made less dangerous if the valves had been in place.
Officials stressed that the valves won’t prevent lines from being ruptured, such as when a backhoe doing excavation work slices through a gas pipe servicing a house. But by limiting the amount of gas that escapes, the valves can prevent a buildup of fuel that can contribute to explosions or fires.
“This important action will add extra protections to communities serviced by the nation’s largest network of pipelines,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. He said the valves can have “a significant impact in reducing the consequences of natural gas leaks.”
Federal transportation officials said if the valves had been in place they could have averted at least eight accidents that killed 10 people since 1998. Among those were a 2012 gas leak and explosion in Springfield, Mass., that injured more than 20 people and damaged dozens of buildings.
The valves also could help reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that are contributing to climate change, officials said.
As utilities across the country dig up their old cast iron and plastic gas lines over the coming years, the rule would ensure they are replaced with safer lines that can be shut off more easily, said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a safety group.
The federal rule would allow customers to request the safety valves for the tens of millions of gas lines already installed across the U.S. but does not specify who would pay for their installation.