Category Archives: Kentucky

NTSB tells PHMSA to fix its horrible pipeline safety methods

Tired of reporting on explosions unprevented by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). just issued a damning set of recommendations to PHMSA, plus to an alphabet soup of other organizations to ride herd on PHMSA to try to get some improvement. How about instead we stop building new pipelines and get on with solar power?

NTSB said its motivation was three recent explosions it reported: the 2009 Palm City, Florida flying pipeline that almost hit a high school, the 2010 San Bruno, California PG&E Pipeline Rupture and Fire, and the 2012 Sissonville, West Virginia I-75 house destruction, about which NTSB said:

These three accidents resulted in 8 fatalities, over 50 injuries, and 41 homes destroyed with many more damaged.

And NTSB reporting on PHMSA’s failures goes back way farther than that, Continue reading NTSB tells PHMSA to fix its horrible pipeline safety methods

Outrage over noise and health effects of Sabal Trail pipeline in Albany, GA

Noise, land-use, health, and a planned joint meeting with county and city Commissions of Dougherty County and Albany. But will they actually pass an ordinance with legal effect? How about get a judge to rule that the pipeline company is not acting in public service for Georgia and therefore cannot use eminent domain like a judge in Kentucky did?

Franklin White wrote for WFXL 15 September 2014, Residents voice health concerns about possible pipeline.

It was a packed house Monday as Dougherty County residents asked the Dougherty County Commission to formulate a noise ordinance.

Christian McKinney wrote for WALB 15 September 2014, Dougherty Co. to meet, discuss controversial Sabal pipeline, Continue reading Outrage over noise and health effects of Sabal Trail pipeline in Albany, GA

Timeline: Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline has no permit yet

Spectra, FPL, and Williams have not even formally filed with FERC for pipeline permits yet, and that process usually takes about a year. Permitting confusion benefits Spectra about its Sabal Trail Transmission 36-inch hundred-foot-right-of-way fracked methane pipeline, because people don’t know what they can do. You can file ecomments right now, and show up and protest. As soon as the pipeline company files for the formal permit process, you can file as an intervenor, which gives you legal rights to be heard, file legal briefs, and to appeal. Plus many state and local permits also have to be filed, and people can participate in those processes. Even if there ever is a FERC permit, a landowner who makes the pipeline company actually go through the eminent domain process will very likely get a better deal. If enough landowners say Come and Take It, the whole thing may become uneconomical for Spectra, as for Williams Company when it cancelled the Bluegrass Pipeline in Kentucky.

FERC’s Pre-Filing Process

Spectra and Williams and FPL are currently in the pre-filing process with FERC, Continue reading Timeline: Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline has no permit yet

Bluegrass fracked methane pipeline cancelled

Williams Co.’s excuse: “an insufficient level of firm customer commitment” for its Marcellus shale to Gulf of Mexico gas pipe. That’s corporate-ese for it got to be too expensive; it’s the same thing a company that wanted to put a biomass plant in Lowndes County said. Couldn’t have had anything to do with massive public resistance, oh no. This is the same Williams Co. that owns Transco, first in the chain of the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> Florida Southeast Connection pipeline through Alabama and Georgia to Florida’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts, where there are already several companies authorized for LNG export. That one could get too expensive, too.

Tim Rudell wrote for WKSU 29 April 2014, Bluegrass pipeline project through Ohio and beyond is cancelled, Continue reading Bluegrass fracked methane pipeline cancelled

Thirty years after Spectra’s Beaumont, KY explosion little has changed

Spectra is related to this from 13 February 2014 MASSIVE BLAST in KY-60 foot crater-3 houses two barns destroyed, 30 foot section of 30″ pipe thrown 300 feet. It was partly about Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern pipeline, almost 30 years and about 30 miles from a very similar Texas Eastern explosion in 1985.

Mark Boxley, wrote for The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal 13 February 2014, Ky. gas line explosion injures 2; homes evacuated,

Two homes were destroyed, 20 residences were evacuated and two people received non-life threatening injuries early Thursday in Adair County after a natural gas transportation line exploded, leaving a 60-foot crater near Highway 76 in Knifley.

The first call came in at about 2:04 a.m. EST when residents heard and felt rumbling under their feet, said Adair County Emergency Management Agency director Greg Thomas. Then came the explosion and a ball of fire, he said.

Continue reading Thirty years after Spectra’s Beaumont, KY explosion little has changed

700×500 feet incinerated, 5 dead, 3 burned: Texas Eastern Gas Pipeline 1985

Plus numerous houses and cars destroyed, all in one methane pipeline explosion in Beaumont, Kentucky in 1985. The same company, today known as Spectra Energy, had another explosion near Lancaster, Kentucky in 1986 that injured three people, two seriously, evacuated 77, and destroyed more buildings and cars, plus ripping 480 feet of pipe out of the ground.

Stu Beitler posted on GenDisasters 30 June 2010, Beaumont, KY Gas Line Explosion, Apr 1985,

GAS LINE EXPLOSION RIPS KENTUCKY TOWN.

Beaumont, Ky. (AP) — A natural gas line explosion killed at least five people, gouged a 20 foot deep crater and flattened six buildings in a tiny community, igniting fires that were visible 20 miles away, authorities said. At least three other people were seriously injured in the weekend blast that ripped up a section of Kentucky’s Route 90 and devastated a mile-square area, according to authorities.

Dick Brown, a spokesman for the state Department of Disaster and Emergency Services, said two houses, three mobile homes and a sawmill were destroyed in Marrowbone Hill, a settlement about a mile east of Beaumont, whose population is 60. The blast site is 90 miles south of Louisville.

A crater 100 feet long, 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep was left by the blast, which occurred about 9:30 p.m., Brown said.

Fires sparked by the explosion could be seen 20 miles away, officials said.

“It was described to me as resembling where a bomb went off,” said Bob Walter, a disaster and emergency services worker. “If you’ve ever been to Vietnam, that’s exactly what it looked like.” Three bodies were found early Sunday, and two more were discovered later in a destroyed house near the scene, officials said.

There’s more in that article.

Here’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Pipeline Accident Report Texas Eastern Gas Pipeline Company Ruptures and Fires at Beaumont, Kentucky on April 27, 1985 and Lancaster, Kentucky on February 21, 1986, NTSB/PAR-87/01, Continue reading 700×500 feet incinerated, 5 dead, 3 burned: Texas Eastern Gas Pipeline 1985