Today, Jeff Wiese, Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety in DOT's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, is in Bellingham, Washington, helping commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Whatcom Creek pipeline explosion.
On June 10, 1999, a gasoline pipeline incident in downtown Bellingham, Washington, resulted in the deaths of three individuals, two of them young children, eight injuries, and over $45 million in property damages.
Preventing pipeline tragedies is the primary mission of the Department of Transportation’s pipeline safety program. Over the last several years, the Department has taken significant steps to strengthen PHMSA:
- We doubled the number of pipeline inspectors and accident investigators and increased civil penalties by eight times the 2002 amounts.
- We invested more heavily in advancing safety technologies, providing more resources for research and development projects to prevent the most common pipeline failures.
- We developed new “integrity management” regulations requiring companies to review each safety process, to develop procedures to assure the safe operation of these processes, and to continually review and monitor these safety processes.
- We introduced a variety of damage prevention programs, including “8-1-1,” the Call Before You Dig number to help eliminate third party damages to pipelines--the type of damage that caused the Bellingham explosion.
These efforts have resulted in an average reduction in serious pipeline incidents of 10 percent every 3 years for the past 20 years, but our job is not done.
My thanks go out to the people and elected officials of Washington State for their great support of pipeline safety initatives, including Rep. Rick Larsen, who recently introduced a resolution in Congress to recognize June 10th as National Pipeline Safety Day, and Gov. Christine Gregoire, who yesterday signed into law a proclamation making June 10 Pipeline Safety Day in the state of Washington, and Senator Patty Murray who introduced legislation ultimately resulting in the Pipeline Safety Act of 2002.
How can we prevent these tragedies from happening in the future? What measures are being done to improve these systems, and is it enough? Feel free to explore these issues within an exciting new dialogue at http://www.infrastructureusa.org. You can read expert opinions, upload your own comments, photos, and videos, and truly make your voice heard.
Posted by: Infra | June 10, 2009 at 05:23 PM
He does a good job and glad to know it.
Share it with the bizymoms Bellingham community.http://www.bizymoms.com/bellingham/index.php
Posted by: Bambie | October 29, 2009 at 02:51 AM