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DOT Presents New Gas Pipeline Safety Proposals

The massive pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California that killed eight people seems to have been the trigger for a new pipeline safety plan that has been proposed by the Department of Transportation.  This week, Transportation Sec. De La Hoya unveiled a new plan for gas pipeline safety that will include an industry-wide review of oil and gas pipelines to identify the areas that need critical repairs.

According to the Transportation Sec., the effort is a collaboration of efforts by the pipeline industry, Congress and regulators to enhance pipeline safety in the country and ensure that tragedies like the one in California, as well as the one recently in Pennsylvania will not occur again.  In September, a gas pipeline ruptured and exploded in San Bruno.  Eight people died, and dozens more injured when the massive explosion ripped through a neighborhood, burning dozens of homes, and destroying property.

Investigations into the tragedy have found that recordkeeping errors at Pacific Gas and Electric Company that owns the pipeline would likely have been a factor in the explosion.  Since then, pipeline safety officials have come down hard on Pacific Gas and Electric Co.  The company is currently in the process of reviewing millions of records, to ensure that there are no recordkeeping errors that have overlooked ruptured pipelines.  For the families of the eight workers who were killed, this was a record keeping error that proved deadly.

On February 9, a massive fire and explosion ripped through a block of homes in Pennsylvania, killing five people and injuring many others.  Investigators believe it was a leak in a pipeline that caused the explosion.  Now Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is calling on oil and gas companies to conduct a review of the pipeline network, to ensure that there are no cracks or leaks present.  For instance, in Allentown where the Pennsylvania explosion occurred, some of the pipeline segments are more than 100 years old, and there have been 295 reports of leak investigations over the past 14 months alone.  Out of these, nine were serious enough to require entire neighborhoods to be evacuated.

Secretary LaHood is supporting a bill that would increase the number of federal inspectors who are dedicated to pipeline safety inspections.  The bill would also increase penalties on companies that violate safety rules.  Civil fines would be boosted from $100,000 to $250,000 a day.  Penalties for a series of violations could cost a company up to $2.5 million.

A similar bill was introduced in Congress during the last session, but failed to gather enough support.  However, a recent series of pipeline explosions could muster enough support for the bill to pass this time around.  At least, that’s what California pipeline explosion lawyers hope.  The risk from defective and ruptured pipelines is simply too high in California’s great, highly populated cities, where a single explosion can cause tremendous damage.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of fires and explosions. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire to discuss a personal injury matter,  you can reach us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

 

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