[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 147 (Thursday, November 14, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S11000]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            PIPELINE SAFETY

  Mrs. MURRAY. I rise today to note a very significant event that 
occurred last night on the floor of the Senate, and that was the 
passage of the pipeline safety conference report.
  As the Presiding Officer knows, in our State of Washington, a tragic 
accident occurred 3\1/2\ years ago when a pipeline blew up on a sunny 
June afternoon, tragically killing three young children in our State 
and devastating a mile-wide section of a river that travels through 
Bellingham, WA. This was a traumatic event that has impacted the lives 
not only of those families and their friends but hundreds of people in 
Bellingham and across this country.
  At the time, I thought this was a uniquely tragic accident that 
occurred in my State when a pipeline suddenly blew up on a sunny Friday 
afternoon, after school. But after coming back to Washington, DC, and 
researching what was known about pipelines, I found out that in a short 
time period, between 1986 and 1999, there had been 5,700 pipeline 
accidents.
  What happened in my home State was not unique. Three hundred twenty-
five people had died in that time period. There had been 1,500 injuries 
that had occurred and $850 million in environmental damage. Working 
with many colleagues, Senator McCain, who chaired the Commerce 
Committee, and Senator Hollings, who worked diligently with me, 
Senators Inouye, Breaux, Wyden, Brownback, Bingaman, Domenici, Corzine, 
Torricelli, my colleague who is presiding today, Senator Cantwell, and 
former Senator Gorton, made this an issue in this country. It has been 
a long and difficult road. We have passed this bill out of the Senate 
on several occasions. We have been stopped in the House, and today we 
are finally at a point where the House, I believe, is going to pass 
this legislation as well, and it will be sent to the President of the 
United States. It will put into place significant new improvements on 
training and qualifications of our pipeline personnel, on inspection 
and prevention practices, on tough penalties for people who violate 
this, and States' abilities to expand their safety activities.
  For the thousands of families who live next to pipelines, who work 
next to pipelines, who send their kids to schools next to pipelines, 
this is definitely an improvement in our law.
  Is it everything we ask for? No. But today I want to rise and thank 
all of my colleagues, and Congressman Larsen as well, for finally 
moving us to a point where the families of Wade King, Stephen Tsiorvas, 
and Liam Wood can realize the hard work they have put in is going to 
finally result in a change of law that means some future child, some 
future family, some future community, will not have to face the 
situation as they have.
  I thank my colleagues for their work on this, and I look forward to 
having the President sign this into law.
  I yield the floor.

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