How do they say these things with a straight face?

Although the pipeline that ruptured was at least 4 decades old, company officials say pipelines don’t age —

Sure and their bathrooms don’t require air vents, because they don’t stink.

…and its maintained according to federal standards.

As in the standards the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Agency (PHMSA) told Williams Co. to follow back in September 2012, before fining it for not doing so? The PHMSA standards that are so poor that the National Transporation Safety Board (NTSB) this January again told PHMSA to fix them?

Company officials it will be several weeks to several months before federal inspectors are able to figure out why it happened.

Standard practice for PHMSA, which probably wouldn’t be able to say it was a crack if a pipe segment landed in its lap. But if a pipe explodes next to a federal highway, NTSB investigates much more quickly and finds the actual cause. Which is usually corrosion seasoned with neglect.

“We need to make sure the investigation is thorough and we fully understand it so we can use that investigation to make sure this doesnt happen again.”

Said “Scott Carney a spokesperson for Williams”.

Like it wasn’t supposed to happen again after all these previous Williams Co. explosions and leaks?

Which pipeline was it this time?

The Energy Company,Williams, owns the pipeline that runs through this stretch — it’s part of an interstate pipeline running natural gas between Texas and the East Coast.

Why, that sounds familiar. As you can see on the above map by Pipeline and Gas Journal, Williams’ Transco pipeline spurs to the west right where Jordan Township, PA is. Bill Huston already figured that out yesterday, Transco pipeline explosion/fire, Lycoming County PA, with a quote from a local:

“I live about 4 miles away and last night chaos erupted in the valley when we could feel the rumble, hear the fire and smell the gas. Just drove by the site about an hour ago and could smell a metallic odor in the air and nose and throat burned.”

And that’s the same Transco that wants to feed Sabal Trail (and Cove Point LNG export, and Elba Island LNG export):

The same Transco that already blew up in Appomattox, Virginia in 2008, and in Marengo County, Alabama in 2011.

Yet Williams Co. would have us believe their pipeline doesn’t age, corrode, or blow up, nevermind it has repeatedly done so before.

Here’s the biggest joke, on Williams’ own Transco web page:

The Transco pipeline quietly, safely and reliably delivers natural gas to its customers through its 10,200-mile interstate transmission pipeline system, extending from South Texas to New York City.

Well, if you define “quietly” as rumbling erupting chaos, and “safely” as 60-foot craters and people evacuated from their homes, who are lucky if they aren’t burned or blown up.

Yet once again, Williams, like Spectra and all the other pipeline companies, is not familiar with its own safety record.

But we the “stakeholders” in the path of the Sabal Trail pipeline are. And Williams and Spectra’s record of corrosion and neglect is all the more hazardous here in our acidic soil and under our acidic blackwater rivers above our fragile karst limestone Floridan Aquifer. Our drinking water, our lands, and our safety are more important that profit for some invading Houston pipeline companies.

Pipeline go home!

-jsq

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