[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 111 (Tuesday, September 19, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H7841-H7842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            PIPELINE SAFETY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to command the 
attention of my colleagues to a potentially deadly and amazingly 
overlooked aspect of public safety, the construction of oil and natural 
gas pipelines in America.
  Unbeknownst to millions of Americans, their homes, their schools and 
communities are sitting atop hundreds of miles of pipelines that may 
explode at any moment if not properly constructed or if not properly 
maintained.
  We all received a rude awakening to the likelihood of tragedy this 
past August. A pipeline exploded one August morning on a camping ground 
in Carlsbad, New Mexico, taking the lives of 11 men, women and 
children. Our Speaker pro tempore knows firsthand of this tragedy. 
Forty-eight hours later, on the other side of the country, a bulldozer 
ruptured a gas pipeline on a construction site in North Carolina. 
Luckily, no serious injuries were reported there. Of the 226 people 
that died between 1989 and 1998, according to a report issued by the 
General Accounting Office, these were some of 1030 who were injured, 
$700 million in property was damaged. This is unbelievable. It is 
unacceptable.
  Madam Speaker, it is time for Congress to demand that the office of 
pipeline safety within the Department of Transportation do their job. 
Periodic pipeline inspections, rigorously report pipeline spills.
  Let me give my colleagues an idea about the status of pipeline 
safety, Madam Speaker, in the United States right now. All of the 
Nation's natural gas, in about 65 percent of crude and refined oil, 
travel through a network of nearly 2.2 million miles of pipes. These 
pipelines need constant attention and repair to remain safe. Over 6.3 
million gallons of oil and other hazardous liquids are reportedly 
released from pipelines on the average each year.

                              {time}  1915

  Yet the incidence of spills and explosions is getting worse. The 
amount of oil and other hazardous liquids released per incident has 
been increasing since 1993. The average amount released from a pipeline 
spill in 1998 was over 45,000 gallons.
  Oil pipeline leaks can and do contaminate drinking water, crops, 
residential land. They generate greenhouse gases, kill fish, cause 
deaths and injuries from explosions and fires.
  For one, there is little or no enforcement of existing regulations. 
The General Accounting Office found that the Office of Pipeline Safety 
had not enforced 22 of the 49 safety regulations that are already on 
the book. And right now there are pipelines, natural gas pipelines, 
starting all over America. Some of these pipelines are going through 
college dormitories in my own State of New Jersey; going through 
people's residential areas in Pennsylvania and Ohio. And I say there is 
something wrong. This was a wilderness area. These people were fishing 
in New Mexico. This was not a densely populated area when 11 Americans 
were killed.
  The Office of Pipeline Safety has not acted on many National 
Transportation Safety Board recommendations for more stringent pipeline 
standards. This sort of inattention is mysterious. Why would the 
agency, whose sole purpose it is to regulate and monitor these 
pipelines, keep them safe, be so uninterested in their duties? It is 
enough to

[[Page H7842]]

make me wonder if there is collusion of some kind going on behind the 
scenes. Why else would this Federal agency be so lax in enforcing its 
own regulations?
  Madam Speaker, this inaction of the Office of Pipeline Safety will 
not be excused by this Congress. We cannot forgive the lack of pipeline 
safety and enforcement. As an original cosponsor of H.R. 4792 with the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee), who we will hear from later, I 
beg of the Speaker to use her influence to get some real safety 
regulations. They are not being adhered to. People's lives are in 
jeopardy.
  Madam Speaker, I submit for the Record a newspaper article regarding 
a pipeline rupture in Paterson, New Jersey.

                         [From the Herald News]

             Gas Line Rupture Forces Evacuation in Paterson

                  (By Robert Ratish and Eileen Markey)

       Paterson.--Workers digging up a roadway on Governor and 
     Straight streets hit a natural gas line Monday morning, 
     releasing fumes and forcing the evacuation of 82 residents in 
     15 to 20 buildings.
       Police cordoned off four blocks surrounding the break for 
     about three hours while crews from Public Service Electric & 
     Gas Co. worked to shut off the gas. Meanwhile, those who live 
     in the neighborhood waited outside until emergency crews 
     deemed the area safe. ``You could hear a roaring sound. It 
     sounded like a train,'' Councilwoman Vera Ames said. She said 
     a thick smell of gas filled the area surrounding the break.
       There were no injuries, and no buildings were damaged.
       The break occurred as workers with the Passaic Valley Water 
     Commission were using a backhoe to break through the street. 
     The crew had been shutting off a water line leading into a 
     building, said Chief Engineer Jim Duprey.
       Duprey said the accident occurred because PSE&G failed to 
     mark the road properly for underground lines. ``When Public 
     Service went to mark out, they indicated there was no piping 
     in the area that was excavated,'' he said.
       Before digging, the commission called a hotline maintained 
     by the state Board of Public Utilities as required by the 
     1995 ``One Call'' law, Duprey said. The hotline allows 
     agencies to make one call and have all of the appropriate 
     utilities mark underground lines.
       A spokesman for PSE&G said the utility was investigating 
     whether the gas line was properly marked.
       After hitting the line, a PVWC worker flagged down a 
     passing officer at about 10:35 a.m., police said. Police were 
     advised to turn off the lights on patrol cars and not leave 
     any engines running for fear of sparking the gas fumes.
       ``It was very dangerous. The pressure was just 
     phenomenal,'' Mayor Martin G. Barnes said.
       Roger Soto, a service technician at PSE&G, stopped at each 
     building on Harrison Street telling workers to stay outside 
     their buildings.
       ``We want to make sure that no one is operating any 
     equipment or any kind of engine,'' he said. ``We're just 
     securing the area, making sure everybody is safe.''
       The chief of emergency management, James Sparano, said even 
     police and fire equipment posed a danger. ``You'll notice 
     even our emergency vehicles are staying way back--anything 
     can spark it,'' he said.
       As firefighters and emergency medical technicians stood by, 
     22 young children attending Bethel Christian Childcare on 
     Auburn Street were evacuated to School 6, where they stayed 
     until it was safe to return. * * *

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