City’s gas lines require constant vigilance

FARMINGTON — Millions of cubic feet of natural gas pass beneath the city of Farmington in underground pipelines on a daily basis.

The San Juan Basin has one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world, and its exploitation directly increases the risk of pipeline malfunctions.

This is an issue that has become part of a national debate because of recent pipeline failures in California and Pennsylvania that caused deadly and destructive explosions.

Under the city of Farmington alone there are hundreds of miles of natural gas lines, and they don’t avoid population centers.

Lines pass beneath Ricketts Park, at least two elementary schools and many neighborhoods.

The problem, according to a number of officials, is that some of the most dangerous lines aren’t subject to state regulation, and those that are depend on self-reporting by the companies that maintain them.

Another problem that has federal officials worried is the fact that the nation’s pipeline system is aging.

“Age of the line is an important factor for line integrity,” said New Mexico Pipeline Safety Bureau Engineering Coordinator Joe Johnson. “But more important, even critical, is how the pipeline has been maintained.”

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission delegates its authority to the Pipeline Safety Bureau, which is in charge of performing pipeline inspections. Its process involves checking the inspection records of the companies that own the lines.

“A huge part of the regulatory process is self-reporting,” Johnson said. “Pipeline safety depends in great part on operator honesty.”

Unfortunately inspection records can be falsified, and have been in the recent past.

In 2008, a pipeline in Albuquerque developed a leak. The line in question, owned by Public Service Co. of New Mexico (PNM), was at a busy Albuquerque intersection just one block from two gas stations.

Records from New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission state that PNM falsified inspection documents. That pipeline now is owned by New Mexico Gas Company, which also operates lines under the city of Farmington, and had 11 possible safety violations in 2010. Many of the violations involved records keeping, and according to gas company officials, they were dealt with. New Mexico Gas Company is a local distribution company and doesn’t operate any lines that run directly from natural gas wells.

“The issues that were identified in the 2010 audit did not present any safety hazards,” New Mexico Gas Company representative Monica Hussey said. “We believe that pipeline safety is not a 9 to 5 job. It requires vigilance 24/7, 365 days a year.”

New Mexico Gas Company operates 135 miles of transmission line, and 571 miles of distribution line under Farmington.

“We have 11,000 miles of line statewide,” said Hussey. “Some of our oldest lines date to the early 50’s.”

Hussey said part of the maintenance process involves sending a sensing unit down the line. The 11-foot device, known in the industry as a “smart pig,” has sensors and on-board computer chips to collect data that can be used to estimate wall thickness and indicate potential weaknesses.

“It detects anomalies,” Hussey said. “It’s all part of our integrity management program.”

It’s not just the regulation process that has both federal and local officials worried. The fact that much of the nation’s natural gas line is more than 50 years old prompted federal officials to demand that companies speed up efforts to repair and replace old and potentially hazardous lines.

“Some of the oldest lines in the area were built before World War II,” Johnson said. “One of the lines we inspect in the Farmington area runs to Los Alamos and is 1940s to 1950s vintage.”

Added to the problem of aging lines is the fact some of the most dangerous lines often aren’t regulated.

There are three types of lines. Transmission lines, those regulated by both state and federal agencies, move natural gas from refineries to distribution lines, which then carry the gas to commercial and residential customers.

Gathering lines, which aren’t regulated under current legislation, collect the gas from wells and deliver it to refineries.

“Gathering lines can have more corrosive gas, larger diameters of pipe and higher pressures than transmission lines,” Johnson said.

That means that more of the explosive gas is being moved at higher pressures through lines that are more likely to corrode because the gas is not refined.

As of 2006, gathering lines ceased to be regulated to the same level as transmission lines.

“A few years back there was a regulation change that says gathering lines in city limits don’t have to be regulated,” Johnson said. “If it is regulated, it doesn’t have to meet the same standards as transmission lines.”

Johnson said that there are close to half a dozen companies operating gathering lines under the city, they include British Petroleum, Merit Energy, ConocoPhillips, DCP Midstream, Enterprise, Merrion Oil and Gas, XTO Energy, Teppco and Williams Fuel Services.

Of those companies, five were cited for safety violations in 2010, some of them multiple times.

What makes the issue even more potentially dangerous is that local officials don’t have a clear picture of where lines lie under the city, a large percentage of which are gathering lines.

“To get a clear picture of where all the gathering and distribution lines lie beneath Farmington would take quite a bit of research,” Johnson said. “Operators of distribution and gathering lines aren’t required to upload their locations.”

City officials are working on it.

“Farmington officials are aware of this issue and are in the process of getting more accurate locations for natural gas lines under the city,” said Derra Mattina, the city’s oil and gas inspector. “What we do have is an estimate of where the lines lie, but some are more accurate than others.”

Mattina said it could take years of gathering and verifying information before there could be a reliable database.

“We have 343 well sits in city limits; they aren’t all active,” Mattina said. “We annually inspect every active well in the city looking for compliance with city code, which includes both safety aspects and aesthetics. So far we have excellent compliance; we see very few safety issues.”

The issue of pipeline safety isn’t something to take lightly, Johnson said.

“If one of these lines goes, they can cause serious damage and take lives,” Johnson said. “The effects of a line explosion can be terrible.”

An explosion of a natural gas line in San Bruno Calif., on Sept. 9 killed eight people and wiped out 38 homes. The 44-year-old San Bruno line wasn’t a gathering line, and the cause of the explosion is still unknown.

Pipeline failures are most often caused by damage because digging, corrosion and failure of the pipe material, welds or equipment, officials said.

“Overall, pipelines are a safer mode of transportation relative to the alternatives,” U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) stated in a press release. “But given the tragedies that continue to occur, we need further improvement.”

Udall introduced an amendment to improve pipeline safety in rural areas as part of the Pipeline Transportation Safety Improvement Act, which recently passed the Senate Commerce Committee by a unanimous vote.

The pipeline safety act seeks to strengthen U.S. pipeline safety standards by increasing the maximum penalties to $250,000 per violation, extending standards to additional pipelines, enhancing programs to prevent dangerous excavation and possibly expanding pipeline inspection and data collection requirements to rural areas.

“By collecting information about the integrity of pipelines we can all be better prepared to catch these safety concerns before they turn into a horrible accident,” Udall stated.

Johnson agrees that keeping track of pipeline integrity is very important for ensuring safety. If he could see one change in the pipeline regulatory system it would involve the frequency of safety checks.

“The most important improvement I think is necessary is more frequent monitoring with an emphasis on integrity and leakage across the whole system,” Johnson said. “It’s the only way to ensure pipeline safety.”

SOURCE: http://www.daily-times.com/ci_18114453