(Source: The Gazette - Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
By Erin Jordan, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
April 03--N atural-gas pipelines similar to one that caused a fatal California blast run within a quarter-mile of four Iowa City schools, a busy neighborhood center, a federally subsidized housing complex and a swimming pool.
In Linn County, the gas transmission lines run under the Cedar River, near Prairie Heights Elementary and a stone's throw from half-million-dollar homes on Cedar Rapids' East Post Road.
Most of the time, natural-gas pipelines pass underground, safely and efficiently providing affordable energy, but from the California explosion to tsunami damage at a Japanese nuclear plant, world attention is turning to the safety and environmental effects of energy.
More than 90 percent of the 300,000 miles of transmission gas lines that cross America may never be inspected for integrity issues, such as cracks, corrosion, faulty welds or thinning, watchdogs say. Most people have no idea where these potentially dangerous pipelines run.
'I had no idea it was back there,' said Aaron Hill, 34, of Iowa City.
Two transmission lines run about 120 feet behind the condo Hill shares with his family on Iowa City's west side. Yellow markers on a nearby street are the only
indication of the 10-inch and 16-inch steel pipelines that run about three feet underground.
These transmission lines have a pressure of 600 pounds per square inch. If they exploded, people within 200 feet likely would be killed and structures would be damaged significantly, according to an impact radius model used in the pipeline industry.
Pipeline breaks rare but deadly
Iowa has more than 30,000 miles of naturalgas and hazardous-liquid pipelines. About 8,300 of those miles are transmission lines -- bigger, higher pressure tubes that carry gas from places like the Gulf of Mexico and Texas to and throughIowa. Iowa pipelines have had 42 'significant incidents' from 2001 through 2010, causing seven injuries and about $11 million in damages, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Significant incidents usually involve leaks of natural gas or petroleumproducts. Of eight Midwestern states, Iowa was third, behind Kansas and Illinois, in the number of incidents per 10,000 miles of pipeline.
MidAmerican Energy, which owns the bulk of gas pipelines in Linn and Johnson counties, had only four significant incidents in Iowa in the past decade and only one person was injured.
'It's a pretty safe form of transportation, really,' said Tom Padley, MidAmerican's operations manager.
When there's a problem with a pipeline, the results can be devastating.
At 6:11 p.m. Sept. 9, a 30-inch steel transmission pipeline exploded in a residential neighborhood in San Bruno, Calif., a suburb of San Francisco.
The gas-fueled blast and a subsequent fire killed eight people and destroyed 38 houses.
The National Transportation Safety Board held three days of hearings on the explosion in March. Democrats in the U.S. Senate are pushingfor increased regulations and safety procedures for the pipeline industry.
In July, an oil pipeline near Kalamazoo, Mich., leaked more than 800,000 gallons of oil into rivers that flow into Lake Michigan. The oil coated animals, killed fish and caused public health fears about water and air contamination. Enbridge Energy, which owns the Michigan pipeline, had another spill near Romeoville, Ill., in September.
Iowa's worst pipeline accident in recent years was in 1994 at Buzz's Bar in Waterloo. A half-inch plastic gas line connected to a steel pipeline ruptured, causing a blast that killed six people, injured one and caused $250,000 damage. The NTSB ruled the cause was brittle plastic and stress on the pipeline caused by soil settlement.