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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

A dangerous problem with gas lines may not be fixed

Topic requested...Please click onto the COMMENTS for the story.

posted by Bob at Wednesday, February 03, 2010

6 Comments:

Anonymous Pioneer Press said...

St. Paul blast follows effort to detect mislaid pipelines
By Tad Vezner
tvezner@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 02/03/2010 03:00:25 AM CST


Gas explosions like the one that tore through a St. Paul home Monday have happened before in the city — at least four times.

The most recent blast occurred when a workman trying to clear a clogged sewer line punctured a plastic gas pipe that had been accidentally installed through the sewer line of the Highland Park home.

The ensuing fire, which destroyed the house, left the sewer worker with first-degree burns and the homeowner with nothing but the clothes on her back.

Elizabeth Skalnek, chief engineer for the Minnesota Office of Pipeline Safety, said the gas line was likely installed through the sewer line in 1991 as the city worked on a 10-year project to separate its storm sewers and sanitary sewers.

At the time, Xcel Energy was asked to move its gas lines from the middle of city streets to beneath the sidewalks on either side. To do so, Xcel used equipment that laid the pipe underground without the need for disruptive and costly trenching.

"They tried to find a way to install these gas lines that had the minimum impact on the surrounding infrastructure," Skalnek said.

The problem was that occasionally the gas line would puncture the older clay sewer lines, which only began being mapped in 2005.

Between 1999 and 2003, there were five instances in Minnesota where someone clearing a sewer line ruptured a gas line and caused an ignition. All but one were in St. Paul; the last was in Rochester, according to Skalnek. There were injuries, but no fatalities — though plumbers have died nationwide in the same circumstances.

After the first St. Paul incident, officials "scoped" sewer lines, snaking cameras inside "thousands" of pipes, according to Bill Kaphing, vice president of operations for Xcel Energy. The scoping was done in areas seen as high-risk, Skalnek said, though Xcel officials said Tuesday they were still gathering data on which areas were inspected and which weren't, as well as the criteria used to determine what made an area high-risk.

Between 2000 and 2003, using the cameras, officials discovered 22 instances in the Twin Cities where utility lines had punctured sewer lines. All but two were in St. Paul.

"In St. Paul, we installed the main underneath the sidewalk, which possibly gets it closer to the sewer pipe," Kaphing said Tuesday.

But in the last inspections, in 2003, Xcel scoped more than 300 sewer pipes in St. Paul and found nothing, Skalnek said. There had been no subsequent incidents until Monday.

"We did not anticipate this happening again," she said.

She added that in Monday's incident, the location where the gas and sewer lines intersected was deeper than the rest of the gas main, and beneath where a tree had been until it was removed last year. She said the gas line was possibly routed under the tree to save it, with the unanticipated effect of it piercing the sewer line.

Kaphing would not commit to any action on Xcel's part until a full investigation of Monday's incident was complete.

Asked if he might consider additional proactive steps, he replied "We have our proactive steps in place. This certainly will get the attention of the public and sewer contractors and we'll review the incident and see if we do have to take any different types of precautions going forward."

Skalnek said earlier: "They will be camera-ing this neighborhood; I can guarantee it," adding "we're going to make sure we find out where any others might be, and we'll make sure they're fixed."

8:08 AM  
Anonymous story continued said...

Asked about proactive measures the utility already has in place, Xcel spokeswoman Patti Nystuen referred to a flier sent annually to its St. Paul gas customers, warning of "a slight possibility that some natural gas pipes could have been inadvertently installed through sewer pipe." It warns of the possibility of a "dangerous release of natural gas" during the unclogging process, and advises St. Paul residents to call a hot line once plumbing professionals determine they might be dealing with a gas line. The last flier was sent in August 2009, Xcel officials said.

A 2003 letter by the Office of Pipeline Safety sent to thousands of plumbers across the state warned of the danger, and information also exists on Xcel's Web site.

But Trista Meehan, who owns the Villard Avenue house that was destroyed Monday, said that for all the efforts at education, she didn't see any sign of them working. No one in her neighborhood had heard of something like this happening. And the professionals apparently didn't, either, she said.

"Roto-Rooter didn't know. To my knowledge, he (the plumber working Monday) didn't know, either. I called various plumbers. Even though I told them the clog was very close to the boulevard, none of them mentioned (the gas line puncturing the sewer line) as a possibility. If the plumbers don't know, how should we?"

Meehan said she and two friends even tried to clear the line themselves, using a 100-foot plumbing snake over the weekend.

"That freaks me out that all three of us could have been killed by what I thought was a clog."

"I'm outraged, frankly," Meehan said. "This was my first home; this was my dream home."

Meehan said she will seek legal recourse, though it was unclear against whom at this point.

Cameras also didn't help with the sewer line she was seeking to clear, she said: "Roto-Rooter put a camera down there, but because it was so clogged up and there was water in the pipes, he couldn't see anything."

Meehan, a singer/songwriter who performs under the name Jezebel Jones and Her Wicked Ways, lost all her belongings, as well as much of her music.

"My music is very sad anyways, so now this'll make it little sadder," she said.

Tad Vezner can be reached at 651-228-5461.

8:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You get how this worked?

Xcel used a "mole" to put in the gas line. The make one hole and then shoot the line straight ahead at some debth under the boulavard.

...and the mole went right through peoples sewer pipes from the house to the sewer line.

In older cities like Saint Paul or Mpls some times those lines don't show up on the maps downtown because they were installed 50 years ago, or worse they were installed without taking out a permit, or the permit said they were at 10 feet deep and they were actually at 9 feet...

JMONTOMEPPOF

Chuck Repke

1:19 PM  
Anonymous Citys NonCompliance Safety said...

Citys Incompetance since 1993
re: Gas Blast, http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/1995/P95_26_27.pdf

12:58 PM  
Anonymous Even the pro's didn't know said...

More on this story linked above.

10:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Remember when 3rd and Maria blew up from a gas line, a street crew was working on 3rd Street and broke the gas line.
Many died from that mishap.
Who does the city hire, and do they get them from Dorothy Day Employment Center so they don't need to pay the higher wage.

7:24 AM  

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