A natural gas pipeline that ruptured in Lincoln County, Kentucky in 2019 killing one person and hospitalizing six others had defects at the failure site that its operator was unaware of, according to a federal agency that regulates pipeline safety. And now Texas Eastern Transmission LP, a subsidiary of Spectra Energy Partners which is a subsidiary of the Canadian energy company Enbridge, must review 20 years of data from tests it performed on the 775-mile-long pipeline to identify areas where other defects may exist.
The Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued the order as part of its investigation of the explosion that killed Lisa Denise Derringer, 58, of Stanford and seriously injured six other people in the Indian Camp trailer park in Moreland, KY, about 40 miles south of Lexington.
At around 1:30 a.m. on August 1, 2019, the pipeline ruptured launching a 30-foot section of the pipeline 481 feet and shooting skyward a fireball so massive it was picked up on Louisville weather radar. Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Don Gilliam, told local reporters that the flames rose 300 feet in the air and could be seen from miles around. The blast left a 43-foot long, 30-foot wide, 10-foot deep crater at the failure site and released 66 million cubic feet of natural gas into the environment.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting a metallurgical investigation to determine the exact cause of the explosion. In the meantime, there is work to be done on the pipeline.
PHMSA Found Discrepancies
The Texas Eastern Transmission pipeline is a 9,100-mile pipeline system that transports natural gas from the northeastern United States to the Gulf Coast. It runs through Texas, Louisiana, the Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
The section that failed is called Line 15. It’s a bi-directional pipeline 30 inches in diameter and 775 feet long that transports natural gas between Kosciusko, Mississippi and Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Construction on it began in 1957.
The company reported that it had performed two tests on that section of line between 2011 and 2019. An in-line inspection in 2011 found no evidence of hard spots which can lead to failures, the company said. But a 2019 review of the same data, performed after the explosion, found evidence of ten hard spots in the failed pipe joint, according to the PHMSA. The agency also discovered two new hard spot indications. In 2018, the company reported that it ran an in-line inspection with a magnetic flux leakage tool and found a small dent with no metal loss.
“After evaluating the foregoing preliminary findings of fact, I find that continued operation of the Affected Segment without corrective measures is or would be hazardous to life, property, or the environment. In addition, having considered the uncertainties of the cause of the Failure, the pressure at which gas is transported, the vintage and type of pipe, the risk of fire to the environment and populated areas in the vicinity of the Affected Segment, I find that a failure to issue this Order expeditiously to require immediate corrective action would result in the likelihood of serious harm to life, property, or the environment,” Alan K. Mayberry, Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety wrote in the order.
Pritzker Hageman’s team of explosion lawyers represent clients nationwide who have been injured in explosions and the families of those who have suffered the wrongful death of a loved one. Our award-winning team has experience with this same pipeline. If your family needs help, call us at 1 (888) 377-8900 (toll-free), send a text to 612-261-0856, or complete the form below. The consultation is free and there is no obligation.
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