Excavation, negligence cited in explosion
WASHINGTON (AP) – The National Transportation Safety Board ruled Tuesday that a 1999 fuel pipeline explosion that killed three people in Bellingham, Wash., was caused by an excavation project five years earlier, compounded by the pipeline company’s failure to inspect the pipe. At a meeting Tuesday, the NTSB cited damage to the pipe caused by IMCO General Construction Co., which was conducting excavation work at a nearby water treatment plant in 1994.
Olympic Pipeline Co., which operates the pipeline, inadequately inspected the excavation work and failed to identify or repair damage, the safety board found.
While Olympic did not know about the 1994 water plant excavation at the time, reports provided later were sufficient to justify digging up the area to examine the pipeline and determine the extent of any damage, the NTSB found.
“The company did not perform the work and thus did not identify the true extent of the damage,” the NTSB found.
The pipeline ruptured on June 10, 1999, spilling more than 200,000 gallons of gasoline into Bellingham’s Whatcom Creek, which flows through a city park. The spill ignited into a fireball that killed 10-year-olds Wade King and Stephen Tsiorvas. Liam Wood, an 18-year-old who was fishing nearby, died after fumes overcame him.
Last year, a federal grand jury indicted Olympic and Equilon Pipeline Co., which operated the pipeline along with Olympic. Three Olympic employees also were indicted on charges of violating the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act and the Clean Water Act.
The state Department of Ecology has fined Olympic and Equilon nearly $8 million each.
The accident also prompted the federal Office of Pipeline Safety to require pipeline operators to allow federal inspectors to review company plans to prevent safety problems. A bill requiring more frequent pipeline inspections is pending in Congress.
The safety board also cited on Tuesday a faulty computer system run by Olympic, which it said failed to respond to repeated indications that pressure was building up inside the pipeline.
If the computer system had been operating properly, “the controller operating the pipeline probably would have been able to initiate actions that would have prevented the pressure increase that ruptured the pipeline,” the report said.
The report also faulted Olympic for failing to adequately train its employees, including pipeline inspectors and computer operators and it said Olympic failed to test safety devices associated with a relief valve that could have prevented the explosion.
The company said after the hearing that it will examine the NTSB report as part of an ongoing effort to prevent similar accidents.
Frank Imhof, IMCO’s president, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. IMCO has denied hitting the pipe during a 1994 excavation.
Carol Carmody, acting chairwoman of the NTSB, said she was struck by “the litany of failures all around” that led to the explosion.
But Carmody said she was encouraged by the changes made by the Office of Pipeline Safety.
“It’s regrettable that tragedy has to occur before changes are made,” she said.
—
http://www.ntsb.gov/
http://www.olypipeline.com/
http://www.imco-inc.com/omepage.cfm?CFID
27861&CFTOKEN
50752149