California natural gas explosion fans Georgia fears

Shortly after last week’s deadly natural gas pipeline explosion in California, a utility regulator there e-mailed Georgia officials for advice.

The question posed was this: How had this state managed to rid itself of aging, high-risk natural gas lines like the one that ruptured Sept. 9 and leveled a neighborhood in the San Francisco suburbs?

Stan Wise, State Public Service commissioner, explained how Georgia’s pipeline replacement program had paid the state’s largest gas utility to replace 2,000 miles of pipe over 12 years. However, there was still a disturbing side to the situation.

The job isn’t done: Atlanta Gas Light has 344 miles of old pipeline that needs to be removed, most of it in metro Atlanta.

The San Bruno, Calif., disaster, which killed at least four people and injured dozens more, put a new focus on underground pipelines — and the danger that can come with them.

While Wise said the California questions directed here should help reassure Georgians about the health of their gas pipeline system, not everyone was comforted.

For Ed Dowlen of East Point, the California explosion reaffirmed his worst fears.

His house in the Piney Woods Terrace subdivision sits 150 feet from a new, Georgia Power natural gas pipeline.

Dowlen, who opposed the pipeline when it was proposed in 2007, said it was impossible to watch the fiery images from the West Coast without wondering if he could be vulnerable, too.

“It gives me a chill all over to think it could happen here,” Dowlen said.

State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, who represents Dowlen’s district, was so concerned that he sent a letter on Wednesday to the Public Service Commission urging a new study of all natural gas lines in Georgia.

“This is exactly why we were opposed to the pipeline,” Fort said. “When I sat in front of my TV and saw the fireball and what happened in California, it brought into stark reality what could happen here.”

Of the Georgia Power line, Fort called it “a 36-inch disaster waiting to happen, running in someone’s backyard.”

In response, a Georgia Power representative said its pipeline — which will begin carrying gas to a Cobb County power plant this spring — is unlike the California pipeline that blew up.

It has state-of-the-art protections against corrosion that can lead to pipeline failure, and it is buried two feet deeper than required.

Regarding the rest of the state’s gas transportation system, Wise said the Public Service Commission’s 12-year replacement program has made the pipeline safer than those in other states, though adding “there are never any guarantees.”

Atlanta Gas Light chairman Hank Linginfelter, in defending the safety of his pipeline system, said it “must meet rigorous federal and state oversight to ensure that natural gas is delivered safely.”

The San Bruno explosion, which destroyed 37 homes, occurred near a portion of a natural gas pipeline that was targeted for replacement, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

Pipelines fail for a number of reasons. The biggest risk comes from excavation. Of the 27 pipeline accidents on AGL’s system between 2000 and 2009, 18 were caused by punctures during digging.

Pipelines also fail because they’re old and corroded. The California line was built in the 1930s and its owner, Pacific Gas & Electric, flagged a portion of it — two miles from last week’s explosion — as a high-risk replacement priority three years ago.

Georgia’s replacement program emerged from a 1998 showdown with the PSC after a haphazard situation was discovered: Pipelines were leaking across the metro area.

Over two years, 20,000 leaks in Atlanta and its northern suburbs were documented by a commission staff investigation. In downtown Atlanta, PSC staffers in their offices smelled leaking gas. A block away, holes were drilled into the sidewalks outside the state Capitol, allowing leaking gas to vent and prevent a catastrophic explosion.

“You’d walk in the front door at the PSC and you’d smell it,” Wise said. “So we finally said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a problem down here.’”

Atlanta Gas Light was removing and replacing more than 20 miles of pipeline per year, according to the company. Leaks were patched when they turned up, but the compromised pipe remained in use. The system also had cast iron pipes installed in the late 1800s and early 1900s and bare steel pipes put in between the 1930s and the 1950s; both were subject to corrosion and failure.

The AGL was assailed for failing to maintain the system, and enforcement action threatened to cost the company exorbitant fines. “It was going to be huge,” commissioner Robert Baker said.

Atlanta Gas Light said the PSC had exaggerated the danger and frightened citizens. A settlement was negotiated. Against the advice of Baker and his staff, the AGL was not fined.

The utility agreed to replace 231 miles of cast iron and bare steel pipelines per year with modern, corrosion-resistant ones. In exchange, the commission allowed AGL to bill customers while costs were incurred, making the replacement project affordable. Customers today pay $1.95 per month in pipeline-replacement fees.

The program was modeled after one in South Carolina, but that state replaced its pipelines without the help of a special fee.

Since 1999, AGL has removed more than 2,300 miles of old cast iron and bare steel pipeline mains and replaced them with plastic or treated, corrosion-resistant steel lines. Leaks in the system have dropped from 3,000 to 681 per year, according to AGL.

Of the 344 miles of old pipeline still in use, all but 70 run through metro Atlanta. AGL’s pipeline replacement program was supposed to be completed two years ago, but stalled out when it got to Atlanta, with city permitting making things difficult. An extension was granted in 2005.

The PSC allowed the extension against the advice of its pipeline safety staff, which said “the risk of a catastrophic accident” would be increased in Atlanta. Baker and former commissioner Angela Speir opposed the extension.

“Corroded pipes are dangerous and need to be replaced to protect the public,” Speir said last week. “It’s not something that should be taken lightly.”