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posted by takyon on Friday September 14 2018, @06:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the whoops,-wrong-valve dept.

An estimated 60 to 80 fires, 3 explosions, and numerous gas leaks were reported last night in the towns around Lawrence, MA (north of Boston). The incident has been linked to lines operated by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts. Columbia Gas has not released an official cause yet, but MEMA (The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency) and some of the local firefighters have speculated that the cause was an over-pressurized gas line. Columbia was conducting planned upgrades on the lines at the time of the incident. One person has been killed; 25 more have been injured.

I was listening to the fire radio as it happened and it sounded like complete chaos -- it was just the dispatch, but there was not a single moment of silence as they scrambled to get crews to all of the affected areas and coordinate the response across four separate towns (Lawrence, Andover, North Andover, and Methuen.) The local first responders were initially asking residents to shut off their gas lines; this quickly changed to calls for all Columbia Gas customers to evacuate, which then increased to an order for immediate evacuation of the entire area. Overnight police and fire officials were going door-to-door enforcing the evacuation, and it is not known at this time when residents may be allowed to return. The electric service has been shut down to the entire area to limit possible sources of ignition, and officials have stated there are over 8000 homes which need to be individually inspected before the residents can return.

So far, Columbia Gas has not provided any confirmation or explanation of the exact cause of this disaster...but I'm sure we've got some people here who have some speculation to offer...

The local Eagle Tribune has a number of articles with further information, and there's limited coverage in national sources like CNN.


Original Submission

Related Stories

Massachusetts Explosions Update: Pipe Pressure Was 12 Times Too High 92 comments

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


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @06:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @06:59PM (#734969)

    Sulu: An incident?!

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:07PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:07PM (#734977)

    "going door-to-door enforcing the evacuation"

    "over 8000 homes which need to be individually inspected before the residents can return"

    Anybody trying that needs to be shot. A home is private.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:18PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:18PM (#734984)

      I think I agree. Go door to door making sure everybody is aware of the situation, but ultimately it's for the best to let people Darwin themselves.

      • (Score: 2) by martyb on Friday September 14 2018, @08:25PM (3 children)

        by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @08:25PM (#735032) Journal

        I understand where you are coming from and generally agree except the case where even if your home is okay, your neighbor is, say, out of town... and when his house goes boom it takes your house, and you, with it. Okay, say you are not killed but instead trapped and severely injured. Now multiply that times all the homes in the area and I can see how emergency services could be overwhelmed by demand and unable to attend to everyone.

        Just having everyone GTFO would help avoid that scenario.

        Put another way, in Soviet Russia neighbors Darwin YOU! =)

        --
        Wit is intellect, dancing.
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:47PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:47PM (#735049)

          Well, this is the wonderful country of Ancapistan we're talking about. The homeowner who was killed obviously had a contract with local emergency services that included an SLA, so after he's killed, he'll be able to refer it to the infinite contract enforcing turtles. If they determine that the emergency services provided him service within the SLA, then he will have to just stay dead, since he knew the risk ahead of time!

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @09:47AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @09:47AM (#735245)

            People rich enough already live using these "ancap" methods, so your implication that they dont work really falls flat. The government service way is for the rabble, and look how everyone complains about how awful it is after every hurricame, etc.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @05:44PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @05:44PM (#735353)

              i was watching the prestitutes recently and they were lecturing their audience about how insurance pays more than fema, as if people are not buying huge insurance policies because they think fema pays better or something! the people who want fema's help don't have insurance money, you stupid motherfuckers. of course, the whole rest of the "news" was about how we should listen to what we are told about evac and what not. the roving pigs even screamed at the reporter to get her ass inside, as if he's the boss of the world. the stupid, criminal government passes a law to make it a crime not to listen to evac orders, then doesn't enforce the evac order, then spends tax payer dollars to rescue the people that didn't evac. it's just a con. just put it to a vote. do you want evac to be mandatory or not? no? then we don't rescue people in those areas. now i don't have to shoot trespassing pigs. congratulations, you fucking morons.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @08:18PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @08:18PM (#736703)

      This is why I have a "COME BACK WITH A WARRANT" sign on my door and do not answer unsolicited/unexpected visits from anyone. Go to hell.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by DrkShadow on Friday September 14 2018, @07:10PM (10 children)

    by DrkShadow (1404) on Friday September 14 2018, @07:10PM (#734978)

    According to Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-massachusetts-explosions/gas-explosions-drive-thousands-out-of-homes-in-boston-suburbs-idUSKCN1LU0W6 [reuters.com]

    Investigators suspected “over-pressurization of a gas main” belonging to Columbia Gas of Massachusetts led to the series of explosions and fires, Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield said on Thursday.

    This struck me a little off. Doesn't every gas meter have a regulator attached to prevent exactly this? It feels like for 6000 homes having 1 in 100 with a bad regulator is a stretch. I got a call a few months ago that the gas provider is required to replace the gas meter every seven years, but I don't know if this applies to the regulator as well, or if these people perhaps skipped their replacement.

    A gas regulator like this one:
    * http://www.dormont.com/products/r325 [dormont.com]

    Doesn't every home have one on their meter? I've never noticed a home lacking one.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by urza9814 on Friday September 14 2018, @07:20PM

      by urza9814 (3954) on Friday September 14 2018, @07:20PM (#734987) Journal

      Can't recall where exactly, but I think I did read something about the pressure being so much that it blew out the regulators in peoples' homes. Definitely not an official statement though, but it seems plausible...that regulator has to have an upper limit. And that could explain why some houses blew and others didn't -- I'd imagine some regulators might handle the pressure better than others. But you'd think there'd be pressure sensors and regulators on the gas main too which should prevent that...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:32PM (#734997)

      I heard they were doing maintenance on the lines (from a friend in MA), so maybe there was something done wrong leading to a rapid pressure increase?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:53PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:53PM (#735011)

      I think residential gas lines are very low pressure. Something like 14kpa (2psi).
      If so, it would take much to break them.

      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Friday September 14 2018, @08:49PM (4 children)

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @08:49PM (#735050)

        I think residential gas lines are very low pressure. Something like 14kpa (2psi).

        Its complicated, anon. like 1 to 10 atmospheres on the street side of the regulator, and literally only a quarter of a psi or so on the house side.

        My guess is most of the explosions are outside / adjacent to the house. Where I live, regulator/meters are all on the outside of the house, I suppose if in MA they put them inside houses the result could be spectacular.

        Large scale natgas systems are EXACTLY like large scale water systems or electrical systems, as stuff rots away over time the peak survivable pressure of any component will slowly drop randomly based on local corrosion, age, maint if any, etc. So "naturally" you'll get one interesting fire per year if the main line pressure is perfectly constant for decades. If, however, someone screws up a repair or god forbid tries to upgrade and the pressure on the main side goes from 20 PSI to 40 PSI, then you'll instantly get like 25 years worth of leaks all in one afternoon. The pipe that was going to rust out and leak in 2035 because it can only survive 35 psi today will burst on the same day as the pipe thats a little more rotten and can only survive 34 PSI and would have naturally burst on 2033 and the same day as the slightly less rusted pipe that could survive 36 psi that was gonna burst in 2037; the exact value doesn't matter if the system gets whacked with 40 psi one afternoon.

        Its unusual for regulators to burst and free flow pressure; I suppose it does occasionally happen, and whacking the main line pressure one afternoon would burst 25 years worth of regulators in one afternoon.

        This situation has come up with very divergent technologies; consider the stereotypical nuclear electromagnetic burst; ALL power transformers fail eventually on a century line timeline, but a nice EMP strike makes 30 years of them fail the same instant, which is a problem for the electrical utility. Ditto car damage via EMP, 5% car electrical failure is maybe pretty good odds for an annual event and it sounds like no big deal, other than 5% failing all during one rush hour would make quite a mess for a couple days, if might take months to get all of them online again.

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 14 2018, @09:47PM (3 children)

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @09:47PM (#735089)

          instantly get like 25 years worth of leaks all in one afternoon.

          Oh follow up finally a decent SN automobile analogy based on a true story from my past. My Dad's coworker replaced his water pump on a 70s era Ford, back when that was a daily driver not a collectors item, and replacing the water pump boosted the water pressure and only took an afternoon to "fix" his overheating problem, whereas fixing a bunch of leaks caused by the higher pressure took the next month's worth of weekend. His advice was never replace a water pump unless you replace every hose because hoses are cheap but having to spend time replacing all of them separately over the next month and then refill the radiator as they slowly individually fail is a PITA. I have no idea if a half century of technological progress make that advice more or less applicable, but apparently if Carter is president its a good idea.

          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 14 2018, @10:32PM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @10:32PM (#735115) Journal

            That advice seems to still be applicable. For as long as hoses are made of materials that decompose in heated environments, and suffer from exposure to UV, ozone, and the occasional salt baths, that advice will remain applicable.

          • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday September 15 2018, @05:11AM (1 child)

            by Whoever (4524) on Saturday September 15 2018, @05:11AM (#735210) Journal

            It may not have been the water pump that caused the leaks. Merely putting in new coolant could have this effect.

            • (Score: 3, Informative) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday September 15 2018, @06:52AM

              by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Saturday September 15 2018, @06:52AM (#735222)

              In forty years of being a mechanic, the only time I have seen new fluids result in leaks, was in vehicles parked for multiple years. The gaskets get dried out and shrink, hoses rot. It was usually the worst for fuel systems, especially naturally aspirated systems. Even maintained vehicles that are rarely driven sometimes fall victim to what we (when i worked at a dealership) called 'lotitis.' Fuel systems were the worst culprit, followed by cooling systems, then tires and suspension bushings.

              New water pumps I've seen blow out old hoses, new lower bearings blowing out top ends, new top ends blowing out bearings etc. All these have in common increasing pressure on older parts of the engine that were not worked on.

              --
              Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 14 2018, @08:28PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 14 2018, @08:28PM (#735033)

      I'm wondering if it's continuous over-pressure, or just high pressure transients. The first would seem to require gross incompetence on the part of the operators and/or system designers. The latter might just be ordinary incompetence on the part of the system designers.

      Of course, if it's terrorists (from the protected groups), or aliens, or visitors from the future, or another flap in the Wizarding world, that you'll only be able to read about in the tabloids.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 14 2018, @09:38PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @09:38PM (#735083)

      required to replace the gas meter every seven years

      Probably, "inspect". Also its strictly state law dependent. I live in an area where the frost depth is much deeper than Florida. Also I live in an area where lightning is rare enough that they tolerate joint trenches (electric and gas thru the same trench, sounds insane, but if you don't get hit by lightning I guess its safe enough?)

      Something I don't understand about joint trenches is the one thing I'd want far away from a pickaxe strike thru my natgas line would be the electric line. Water, fine. Sewer, OK. Cable, OK. But gas and electric inches apart? Ehhhh...

  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday September 14 2018, @07:14PM (3 children)

    by urza9814 (3954) on Friday September 14 2018, @07:14PM (#734981) Journal

    Curious if anyone here has any knowledge about how these kinds of gas lines are managed. I'd think they'd know what kind of pressure is required and what the safe upper limit is, and they'd have some monitoring equipment and vents at various points to prevent any issues. Do they just assume that they've got everything managed well enough at the supply end that over-pressure lines "can't" happen? Or would this kind of incident require a cascade of multiple independent failures?

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 14 2018, @08:57PM (1 child)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @08:57PM (#735054)

      what the safe upper limit is

      There is none, as the pipes slowly rust away they very slowly fail over the course of a century and usually at very slow leak rates such that the stinky stuff will result in a repair call long before an explosion.

      You get large numbers of simultaneous failures by large transients.

      My gas line is slowly rusting away and would have failed with a pinhole slowly getting larger and smellier in 2035 leading to replacement in 2035 without an explosion. My neighbor has a slightly newer line or less corrosive dirt and his was going to fail in 2045 with a calm little pinhole no explosion. A whomping big transient in pressure due to accident or rust jamming a regulator open or whatevs results in both my line and my neighbors line bursting completely on the same afternoon leading to a huge leak and huge fire/explosion.

      The good news is this would be a safer neighborhood to move into after the mess is cleaned up... every piece of equipment that was going to slowly gradually fail over the next quarter century or more ALL failed simultaneously a couple days ago. There isn't going to be a non-accidental leak in that area due to corrosion/age for decades to come.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @04:35PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @04:35PM (#735329)

        Here in NY State, the iron pipe gas lines from street to house have been internally sleeved with plastic tubing, pulled through like fishing wire through conduit. In our neighborhood, this was done around 2000, for iron pipe that went in the ground in the 1950s. No idea what the expected lifetime of the plastic is supposed to be, but at least it won't rust... By the time the plastic fails, there may not be enough of the original iron pipe left to fish another plastic tube through??

        At the same time they also replaced any house piping from regulator/meter that went through concrete to the gas appliances--that pipe was also slowly rusting. In our case they ran a new piece of pipe in front of the boiler & hot water heater, convenient for the gas company installers (who were jerks about it) and we had to have it re-routed when the boiler was replaced.

    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday September 14 2018, @10:33PM

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday September 14 2018, @10:33PM (#735116) Homepage Journal
      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:15PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:15PM (#734982)

    I was listening to the fire radio as it happened

    Can anyone recommend a setup to do this. Ideally one device to listen to fire/police/cb/ham radio frequencies? It doesnt need to transmit and hopefully not require a lot of tinkering to set up.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by urza9814 on Friday September 14 2018, @07:27PM (8 children)

      by urza9814 (3954) on Friday September 14 2018, @07:27PM (#734990) Journal

      For a PC/browser, use RadioReference.com

      For an Android (possibly iOS, not sure) device, grab the Scanner Radio app. It's excellent. Gives a notification when more than 10k people tune in to any station (that threshold and notification is configurable)...so last night I got notified that 11k people were listening to Lawrence Fire, so I went online and searched "Lawrence MA News" to see what was going on. That's actually how I get most of my breaking news these days...sometimes I even get the notifications before any national news agencies are aware of it. You can of course search the full list of streams too if you just want to listen in to what's going on locally.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:32PM (7 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:32PM (#734995)

        In case of a real emergency I'd expect the internet to go down though...

        • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday September 14 2018, @07:39PM (6 children)

          by urza9814 (3954) on Friday September 14 2018, @07:39PM (#735000) Journal

          True... Personally I've got a Yaesu FT-817 radio with my local EMS and CB frequencies already programmed in, but I don't use it much these days... It's pretty nice and reasonably user-friendly though, and very durable.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:49PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:49PM (#735006)

            I'll check it out, thanks.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:01PM (4 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:01PM (#735056)

            So if I get this I also need to buy an antenna to put on the roof?
            https://www.amazon.com/Yaesu-FT-817ND-Compact-Amateur-Transceiver/dp/B008B8YLIK [amazon.com]

            And also its only 5W which seems too low, shouldnt someone get a 100 W power supply to use it right? What is the range?

            • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday September 14 2018, @09:29PM (1 child)

              by urza9814 (3954) on Friday September 14 2018, @09:29PM (#735075) Journal

              It does include an antenna, but bigger is generally better :) You do need to be careful with your selection there though if you wanna transmit, any antenna will be fine to receive but to transmit you need an antenna that's a proper ratio to the transmission frequency.

              Also be aware that the FT817 (and probably most others) can receive a pretty wide range of frequencies but they limit which ones you can transmit on. Mostly just the ham bands.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @04:11PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @04:11PM (#735317)

                Thanks, really I just want to listen. I'm sure once I get it I will want to play with transmitting too though.

            • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday September 14 2018, @09:30PM (1 child)

              by RS3 (6367) on Friday September 14 2018, @09:30PM (#735076)

              I'm no HAM but I'll toss in my EE $0.02: 5W can go around the world depending on frequency, atmospheric conditions, and antenna gain (and receiver antenna gain, electronic gain, etc.) I see some power amps for you: http://yaesuft817.com/wp/amplifier-for-yaesu-ft-817-qrp/ [yaesuft817.com]

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @04:28PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @04:28PM (#735327)

                Thanks, yea I was thinking there may be other "modules" I would need to get the most out of this. I just didnt want it to turn into a thing where I keep ordering another part I didnt realize I would need.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:22PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @07:22PM (#734989)

    Cyber warfare, someone hacked the utility and pumped the pressure really high.

    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday September 14 2018, @08:43PM

      by Bot (3902) on Friday September 14 2018, @08:43PM (#735046) Journal

      >Columbia was conducting planned upgrades on the lines at the time of the incident

      It might be the hypothetical hacker gained control during/thanks to the upgrades, but its 10x more likely somebody f.ed up the upgrade.

      Anyway in a well designed system garbage from the PC side due to hacking and or programming error should not only be considered but expected. We are taking too many shortcuts with the infrastructure.

      --
      Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 14 2018, @09:02PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @09:02PM (#735057)

      Interestingly you can cause a lot more damage dropping output to zero momentarily. Its not just all those residential pilot lights going out (and some not, leading to kaboom) but think of natgas peaking plants, knock all those out at once on a hot summer day (not today) and you could take out an entire electrical grid, I bet. Hows your blackstart capability? Just kidding, I'm sure they'd load shed entire cities rather than have to blackstart a nuke, LOL.

      Energy, not just natgas but extraction in general or public utilities or all that stuff, is a fascinating field to study. And invest in. Maybe not as popular as computers, but cool technology and engineering none the less. There's probably 10x as many old time phone phreaks who know the legacy phone system as there are ... amateur energy enthusiasts or whatever.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 14 2018, @10:30PM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @10:30PM (#735113) Journal

      Somebody watched too much "Live Free or Die Hard" recently, eh?

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @10:46PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @10:46PM (#735120)

        Nah just didn't pay enough attention to see that they rolled out an upgrade. Definitely seems the most plausible reason.

    • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Monday September 17 2018, @03:58AM

      by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 17 2018, @03:58AM (#735846) Journal

      Reminds me of that lovely opening dialogue from Clerks 2...

      Randal Graves: [after the fire at the Quick Stop] Terrorists?

      [Dante shakes his head]

      Randal Graves: I left the coffee pot on again, didn't I?

      [Dante nods]

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by jmorris on Friday September 14 2018, @07:57PM (23 children)

    by jmorris (4844) on Friday September 14 2018, @07:57PM (#735014)

    We know they were doing an upgrade and a lot of stuff want kaboom. Speculation as to why is productive since it is almost certain we will never be told anything approaching a reason.

    1. Intentional. They hired some "kill em all" diversity instead of the more typical incompetent sort.

    2. Intentional. Despite having sound security measures an infiltrator made it in.

    3. Incompetence. They hired too much diversity. Or somebody's cousin. But unless the rot has festered so long all of the written procedures and designs are now useless, they had enough safeguards, double checks and failsafe systems that one moron should not be able to account for a disaster of this scale. This sort of thing requires whole crews be idiots.

    4. The gas company isn't responsible, someone else used an opportunity, a manhole left unattended, etc. created by the planned and announced system upgrade.

    There really aren't any options that wouldn't require major consequences, which is why it will be allowed to vanish into the coverage of the Deathstorm from Hell with a side of Russia!, Russia!, Russia!

    • (Score: 2) by Tara Li on Friday September 14 2018, @08:07PM (1 child)

      by Tara Li (6248) on Friday September 14 2018, @08:07PM (#735021)

      Bloody *HELL* - not even Drudge has this up! WTF????

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:17PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:17PM (#735067)

        maybe everybody took friday off

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:08PM (#735024)

      4. The gas company isn't responsible, someone diverse used an opportunity, a manhole left unattended, etc. created by the planned and announced system upgrade.

      FTFY

      er, one other

      Diversitystorm from Hell with a side of Diversity!, Diversity!, Diversity!

      there we are

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:23PM (#735030)

      It's almost certainly 3 - but because this is Mass, it's probably worse than you are imagining.

      When they investigate, they'll find that was designed won't be what's actually in the ground. Corners will have been cut, and all kinds of money will be found to have evaporated without a trace. They'll find that the contractors in the area did something similar in parallel, and that a significant number of new houses in the area aren't up to code. They'll find that the problem has been around for years, but just failed now because of a perfect storm of stupidity. The current crew doing something dumb to the old crew's dumbness.

      If they blew up Lawrence alone, honestly, nothing would be done. There'd be a lot of hand waving and maybe a settlement. But because they also blew up some relatively well off places, a few heads will have to roll to satisfy the public. It won't be national news because it'll be embarrassing - the heads will almost certainly have ties to state government officials - but it'll be in the local news.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday September 14 2018, @08:30PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Friday September 14 2018, @08:30PM (#735037)

      Here's my speculation:

      A lot of these homes are older and haven't changed hands in decades. That means that their gas lines have probably not been inspected or maintained by anybody recently. Or, if they have been maintained, what was going on is that the gas company employee would stop by the house, take at most a couple of minutes to look at the lines and check the box on the form saying they're OK. They probably are encouraged to cut corners by managers who want them to meet ever higher quotas for how many lines they inspect. This resulted in a gas system that according to the bureaucracy could handle a much higher PSI than it could in practice. The people working on the maintenance project made their decisions based on what was happening on paper / in the computer database, and not on what was going on in reality because they had no way of knowing the paper numbers were false.

      No need for anything intentional or concerns about "diversity". Human stupidity and company bureaucracy is more than sufficient.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 14 2018, @08:32PM (6 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 14 2018, @08:32PM (#735040)

      I'm guessing the investigation will point to a formerly unanticipated dynamic behavior of the system which will get written up as a case study for future engineers. If that case study looks a little wonky, or never publishes, then, yeah, they're hiding the real cause.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 14 2018, @09:12PM (5 children)

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @09:12PM (#735064)

        formerly unanticipated dynamic behavior of the system

        Much like switching power supplies are a negative resistance element in a power grid which makes life exciting when there's "too many" of them, maybe pressure regulators feeding "too many" natgas peaking plants creates a local negative resistance element.

        Negative resistance elements make great oscillators.

        Unlike electrical stuff, I would imagine fluid dynamics and subsonic flow rates make it much harder to make a natgas oscillator than an electrical oscillator. Which might be exactly why no one worries about it until "kaboom"...

        My gut level guess if its not "oh shit I thought you said 250 psi not 25 psi" is cascading failure modes. Someone totally F-ed up a large line resulting in a slug of very high momentary flow rate resulting in rusty grunge blowing downstream jamming up regulators open or close precisely when they need to move the fastest to calm the pressure wave leading to a big mess. Natgas is not, like, pharmacological pure and there's grunge in there to clog stuff up, which can be handled at normal rates but not so well during a crazy accident.

        • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday September 14 2018, @11:30PM (4 children)

          by jmorris (4844) on Friday September 14 2018, @11:30PM (#735144)

          You mean old switching power supplies without PFC (Power Factor Correction) features. Now it is only really crappy low end products that cause problems. Too bad most of the marketplace is filled with cheap crappy Chinese junk.

          • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday September 15 2018, @08:04AM (3 children)

            by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 15 2018, @08:04AM (#735231) Homepage Journal

            Can someone explain to me what switching and nonswitching power supplies are and how they work and differ? They've been mentioned off and on here, and I haven't been able to find an explanation..

            • (Score: 2) by shortscreen on Saturday September 15 2018, @09:42AM

              by shortscreen (2252) on Saturday September 15 2018, @09:42AM (#735243) Journal

              The big plastic bricks that used to come with the Atari and Commodore contained a transformer to turn 120VAC into a lesser AC voltage, followed by a rectifier/regulator to turn it into 5VDC. These things were not very efficient and only put out 10W or so. A switching power supply is more complicated, but more efficient. Instead of controlling the output voltage by dissipating the excess as waste heat, it feeds a high frequency into a big capacitor and varies the duty cycle to maintain the charge. It's like trying to keep your speedometer at 60mph but instead of holding the accelerator pedal steady you repeatedly floor it and then let off, 100,000 times per second.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @12:36PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @12:36PM (#735277)

              A linear or regulated power supply uses a transformer to downscale/upscale the voltage from AC input to the required output voltage followed by a rectifier to convert to DC, then gets out of the way to let the rest of the system (the power line and equipment) handle the power transfer. Any mismatch in supply and demand (power transfer is fast, but not instantaneous) is immediately dissipated as heat. A switched-mode power supply has the rectifier first, then generates its own AC signal at around 100kHz or higher, and feeds that into a transformer. Because of the much higher frequency, the transformer can be much smaller, and because of the more intelligent circuitry, the power draw can be much better controlled resulting in less heat dissipation.

              Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] has its own explanation and comparison:

              A switching-mode power supply continually switches between low-dissipation, full-on and full-off states, and spends very little time in the high dissipation transitions, which minimizes wasted energy. [..]Voltage regulation is achieved by varying the ratio of on-to-off time. In contrast, a linear power supply regulates the output voltage by continually dissipating power.

            • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday September 17 2018, @01:46PM

              by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 17 2018, @01:46PM (#735957)

              Totally unfair not to provide an automobile analogy

              Linear supplies control yer car speed VERY roughly using the transformer/holding down the accelerator to some angle and locking it at X percent output. Then fine tune the speed by pressing on the brakes generating some amount of heat depending on load (uphill? downhill?) and depending on input voltage (held the accelerator down too much or too little?) Its actually a bad analogy because the accelerator controls power but transformers actually control voltage which when multiplied by current gives you power.

              Switchers work like a crazy person either foot to the floor or put it in neutral and coast. Which is hard on the mechanical parts but is a fairly reasonable way to run a switching power supply or air compressor or home HVAC furnace if they're engineered to do it. The reason why you'd do it is the energy cost when its in neutral is zero (assuming engine cut off completely not merely idling) and the efficiency of engines -n- stuff is usually designed to be maximum at full power for handwavy reasons so on average the efficiency is roughly the theoretical max of the engine despite the fact you might only average 25 mph not whatever flooring it eventually approaches.

              Or even shorter but worse analogy is linear is like old person controlling speed by riding the brake whereas switcher is kinda like controlling speed by heavily manipulating a hybrid car system.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 14 2018, @09:24PM (1 child)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @09:24PM (#735073)

      5. I've worked at several infrastructure companies and documentation is stereotypically awful, so some CAD guy in 1995 who's been gone for two decades, mis-copied something off the engineering notes when transcribing the old paper plans into CAD and the field note corrections never made it into the CAD drawing because who knows it was 1996 they were busy, then when they tried to do the upgrade its all ohshit.jpg the paperwork said to set the new regulators to 85 psi to match the old regs, but the old regs were set to 25 psi and now the pressure transient blew a ton of stuff that was rusty but would have slowly broken over the next couple decades, all fail completely and instantly.

      Oh ha ha how about that, pipe #252 was labeled on site and in CAD as a high pressure feeder to the next subdivision but the guy who retired back in 2005 knows it is actually a low pressure residential run, whoopsie.

      The worst part is documentation is usually bad enough to cause the occasional disaster but good enough to strongly encourage reliance upon it in between the disasters. Maybe people are more careful in natgas land, but ... probably not, human nature and all that.

      • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday September 16 2018, @01:00AM

        by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Sunday September 16 2018, @01:00AM (#735506)

        I got an apartment complex of over evacuated in 1984. I was a plumber digging up a sewer pipe in back of one of the buildings to install a clean out access.
        I cut though a plastic feeder pipe to the gas meter. The spec at the time was it was supposed to be >3 feet and covered by no less than 1 foot of sand (so you would see the sand and know to quit fucking digging). It was 6 inches below the surface and and my first shovelful cut it in half.

        So yeah, the reality and the standard frequently have little to do with each other.

        --
        Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:30PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:30PM (#735077)

      5, Shit''s old and decrepit in the east coast.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 14 2018, @10:27PM (5 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @10:27PM (#735112) Journal

      We don't need no stinkin' terr'ists, we can do it all by ourselves, in the good old socialize-costs corporate style.
      MAGAAAA!

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Friday September 14 2018, @11:35PM (3 children)

        by MostCynical (2589) on Friday September 14 2018, @11:35PM (#735150) Journal

        Just need to find the political or financial angle.

        Oh, you mean the money came from not doing maintenance and it has already been spent/ allocated to efficiency bonuses.. carry on.

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 14 2018, @11:46PM

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @11:46PM (#735154) Journal

          I don't dare to be more subtle than I was, lest the meaning will be lost.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 14 2018, @11:54PM (1 child)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @11:54PM (#735156) Journal

          That and the "Do it yesterday, stop that engineering babble we can't afford the time to check, we have a schedule to meet (otherwise I can kiss goodbye my bonus this year)" business exec managerial style.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday September 15 2018, @03:27AM

            by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday September 15 2018, @03:27AM (#735204) Journal

            "I'll just have to hire someone who will do it my way."

            I imagine, once you've outsourced/contracted/gutted the technicians, linesmen, technicsl supervisors, engineers, engineering supervisors, quality assurance, technical verification, there really isn't much left to do but write memos about contracts and collect bonuses.

            Also see Australian phone system, gas and water infrastructure, and likely any other "first world" country.

            --
            "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @06:00PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @06:00PM (#735359)

        probably your beloved union's lazy ass fault.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 14 2018, @10:47PM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @10:47PM (#735121) Journal

      This sort of thing requires whole crews be idiots.

      Maybe. Or, maybe just one idiot who failed to follow orders and/or procedures. In some cases, two or three idiots. True story: we were pouring concrete where we couldn't get a concrete truck. The options available included a pumper truck, or setting up a small crane with a bucket. The bucket held 1/3 yard of concrete, and usually, when reaching as far as was necessary in this case, the bucket was only filled 1/2 full. There should have been nothing to talk about, we've all done this so many times, it's routine. Except - the crane operator couldn't find a spot he liked, where he could extend his stabilizers all the way. Superintendant told crane operator to just extend those stabilizers as far as they would go - everything would be fine. Operator objected, super threatened the operator's job, so operator obeyed orders.

      You've guessed it by now - the crane tipped over with about the third bucket of concrete swung over to the pour.

      Fortunately for the operator, there were witnesses who heard the super threaten to fire the operator. Operator kept his job, the super was sent out the gate. THAT sort of justice seldom happens.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @06:54AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @06:54AM (#735223)

        Witnesses or not the super should have been fired. The operator may have been fired as well if there weren't witnesses to the objection.

        This is one of the reasons why American is going down the crapper, people issuing orders that aren't ultimately responsible for the consequences.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:36PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:36PM (#735042)

    We have some vacant rural property in the NE USA, been in the family since the mid-1960s, used for camping and a retreat.

    It came with a couple of gas transmission pipelines and one is Columbia. While the local people that work for Columbia are just worker bees, there have been a few bigger deals over the years and the company attitude about anything is to do nothing, or perhaps the bare minimum. So I'm going with negligence, as a corporate policy.

    Transmission pipelines can run at over 1000 psi (~65 bar) and there are big pumping stations along the route. These are nothing like residential pipelines and the two must be connected pretty carefully to prevent overpressure of the residential system.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @09:21PM (#735071)

    Haven't you been reading the other articles?

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday September 14 2018, @10:31PM (2 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday September 14 2018, @10:31PM (#735114) Homepage Journal

    You have to pump gas in as it is consumed, but you must take care never to pump in too much:

    Back in the day a pro-western Soviet citizen snuck a "shopping list" out to the CIA. Among the items the Soviets wanted was a Scada system for controlling high pressure gas pipes. Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. SCADA systems are the most common Human Life Critical software and hardware around.

    With Commander-In-Chief Reagan's specific written authorization, the Soviets "managed" to obtain a SCADA system.

    Everything was cool for a while but then all the pumps started running at full speed. Eventually a very long piece of high pressure gas pipe exploded. Can I find the [needed citation]?

    Yes. [prisonplanet.com]

    "In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines, and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds," Reed wrote. "The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space."

    "While there were no physical casualties from the pipeline explosion, there was significant damage to the Soviet economy. Its ultimate bankruptcy, not a bloody battle or nuclear exchange, is what brought the Cold War to an end. In time the Soviets came to understand that they had been stealing bogus technology, but now what were they to do? By implication, every cell of the Soviet leviathan might be infected. They had no way of knowing which equipment was sound, which was bogus. All was suspect, which was the intended endgame for the operation."

    (Emphasis Added.)

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
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