This article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

September 18, 2010

San Bruno-type explosion unlikely in W.Va., experts say

By Paul J. Nyden

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  After a natural gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, Calif., earlier this month -- killing seven, injuring nearly 60 and destroying 37 homes -- people across the country began asking whether similar tragedies could occur in their neighborhoods.

For the past 20 years, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the company that owned the San Bruno transmission line, failed to spend tens of millions of dollars it promised regulators it would to replace aging gas transmission lines.

As a very rural state, West Virginia might not be in great danger of experiencing a disaster similar to the one that destroyed the neighborhood in suburban San Francisco, say those who work in the gas industry.

Mountaineer Gas spokesman Moses Skaff said he believes the chances of a similar disaster occurring in West Virginia are "very remote," in part because the San Bruno explosion involved a transmission line 30 inches in diameter.

"What happened in California involved a transmission line with 1,000 pounds of pressure inside it," he said. "Mountaineer Gas doesn't operate transmission lines. We only handle distribution lines."

At six inches or less in diameter, those lines "are nowhere near the size or have nowhere near the pressure of transmission lines," he said, adding that lines that go into homes are only two inches in diameter, with about seven ounces of pressure. 

Skaff said Mountaineer Gas performs routine surveys of all lines.

"We have specific people who look for and detect leaks," he said. "We have a 24/7 response team to emergency gas calls. We are very proactive on our leaks."

Charlie Burd, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, said most of the Mountain State's transmission lines are in remote and isolated regions, not in populated areas like in California.

"The likelihood of something that catastrophic happening here is remote," Burd said.

Columbia Gas has received hundreds of calls from reporters since the California disaster, said Shawn Traham, a national spokesperson for the company in Houston.

Columbia officials are not talking to the media about the California tragedy, Traham said. The company released a prepared statement about the situation.

"Our operating facilities are kept under a constant watch -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- by the staff at our Gas Control monitoring centers," the statement says. "Team members working in these centers continuously gather and monitor data from pipelines and related facilities across our operating system and can control the flow of gas throughout our pipeline network."

Columbia Gas is also working with people living near its pipelines, as well as contactors, emergency responders and public officials, according to the statement.

In West Virginia, the Department of Environmental Protection plays only a minor role in regulating transmission lines.            

That is done by either the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or the West Virginia Public Service Commission, said DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco.

"The tragedy shows the importance of maintaining proper regulations," Cocso said. "The DEP is in the process of undertaking an oil and gas program review in our own agency."

The PSC has a gas pipeline safety division, said Byron Harris, director of the PSC Consumer Advocate Division.

"They do field inspections and require all sort of reporting," Harris said. "That is not to say something like this could never happen here. Nobody really knows exactly what is going on beneath the ground."

West Virginia might not have enough inspectors to monitor potential dangers, especially if more wells are drilled to extract natural gas from the huge Marcellus Shale in the Northeast and Appalachian areas, said Steve White, executive director of the Charleston-based Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation.

The ACT Foundation is a strong supporter of producing more gas from the Marcellus Shale deposits.

White believes West Virginia needs more inspectors.

"DEP's Oil and Gas Division has only 17 people," White said. "I doubt there is anybody who monitors gas lines or aged gas lines. They can't keep up with requests to install new gas lines."

He added: "Between now and 2020, more than $200 billion worth of natural gas will come out from Marcellus Shale deposits. West Virginia has a quarter of those deposits."

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper is also concerned about the impact of Marcellus Shale drilling.

"I am not sure what is a bigger threat -- gas transmission lines which are decaying, or the beginning of new drilling throughout the state," he said. "I think it might be the new drilling. It might have a catastrophic impact, all under the guise of clean energy. Natural gas does burn clean. But we may make the same mistake we made in the 1920s and 1930s, when we let people come in, take away our natural resources, and pay us very little."

   The National Transportation Safety Board recently published "Pipeline Accidents," a list of agency reports on 117 different gas explosions that occurred across the country between June 1969 and December 2008.

The publication is available, at no cost, at www.ntsb.gov/publictn/p_acc.htm.

Copies of Columbia's brochure and other information are available at www.ngts.com.

Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.