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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the Big-oops-made-big-booms dept.

Pipe pressure before gas explosions was 12 times too high

The pressure in natural gas pipelines prior to a series of explosions and fires in Massachusetts last week was 12 times higher than it should have been, according to a letter from the state's U.S. senators to executives of the utility in charge of the pipelines.

Democratic U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey sent the letter Monday seeking answers about the explosions from the heads of Columbia Gas, the company that serves the communities of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, and NiSource, the parent company of Columbia Gas.

"The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has reported that the pressure in the Columbia Gas system should have been around 0.5 pounds per square inch (PSI), but readings in the area reached at least 6 PSI — twelve times higher than the system was intended to hold," the letter said.

The pressure spike registered in a Columbia Gas control room in Ohio, the senators said in the letter, which requests a reply by Wednesday.

See also: Columbia Gas pledges $10M toward relief efforts in Lawrence, Andover, North Andover

Previously: 60-80 Homes Burn; Gas Line "Incident" in Northern Massachusetts


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Tuesday September 18 2018, @11:58PM (3 children)

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @11:58PM (#736827)

    How long till someone starts saying the pressure control/regulation systems were hacked by some state (China, N.Korea, Russia, etc) sponsored group?

    I does seem odd that the pressure could get so high without some alarm or safety system somewhere kicking in but it could still be just a string of bad luck. I've seen oil refineries go BOOM because of an over pressure in some subsystem that the safety systems couldn't handle, then causing a leak that found an ignition source. No hacking involved, just some outdated equipment due for replacement that had quietly failed earlier than expected.

    I look forward to the results of the investigation.

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  • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Wednesday September 19 2018, @01:32AM

    by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 19 2018, @01:32AM (#736873) Journal

    How long till someone starts saying the pressure control/regulation systems were hacked by some state (China, N.Korea, Russia, etc) sponsored group?

    Pretty sure the rest of your post just said that exactly.

    I[t] does seem odd that the pressure could get so high without some alarm or safety system somewhere kicking in but it could still be just a string of bad luck.

    When you start looking at old infrastructure, it really is quite amazing how few alarms and or safety features are in place, the older, the less chance of this type of thing. Given how pressure works in localised environments the pressure in one place doesn't mean the same pressure in others. Even a tiny system like a workshop compressed air system has large fluctuations in use -wWhen using an air sprayer with some wood finish, you can hear the air still rushing through pipes for a few seconds after flipping the trigger from spray to nothing. Imagine that on a city/county scale instead of a single workshop!

  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday September 19 2018, @03:40PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday September 19 2018, @03:40PM (#737074) Journal

    I does seem odd that the pressure could get so high without some alarm or safety system somewhere kicking in but it could still be just a string of bad luck.

    According to TFS:

    The pressure spike registered in a Columbia Gas control room in Ohio, the senators said in the letter, which requests a reply by Wednesday.

    So it seems like there's three options:
    1) They saw it too late. Alarms went off, but it was after shit was already exploding or past some point of no return so they couldn't do anything about it by that point. Although that doesn't necessarily mean that it couldn't have been prevented with more/better monitoring and automation.
    2) Alarms went off on some unmonitored system so nobody noticed...which would be pretty damning
    3) Alarms went off and were deliberately ignored...which would be even worse

  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday September 19 2018, @06:20PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Wednesday September 19 2018, @06:20PM (#737160) Journal

    I've read about an industrial explosion of a reactor vessels where the isolation valves used to isolate a runaway reaction also isolated the relief valves. Monumental design fuck up.

    And that was my first thought when I read this, where was the relief valve? Granted this is natural gas but there is no reason to not include a relief valve.

    The pressure regulator is most likely not on the internet. Knowing upgrade adverse utilities; it's probably a neglected rusty lump in some mahole pit which became clogged or jammed by dirt or debris and failed to regulate allowing the pressure to build. No one noticed and appliances are usually designed for no more than 0.5 PSI (3.4 kPa) operating pressure. It's possible that that caused leaks in appliances or old gas plumbing that was just about holding back the half pound of pressure like an elderly man holding back his bowels after eating Indian for the first time.