Washington State Issues Record Fine in Tesoro Refinery Explosion

The Washington Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) determined that the explosion that killed seven workers at the Tesoro petroleum refinery in Anacortes, Washington could have been prevented. L&I fined the company $2.39 million for 39 “willful” violations and five “serious” violations of state workplace safety and health regulations. This is the largest fine in the agency’s history.

A heat exchanger at the refinery ruptured around 12:30 a.m., April 2, 2010, releasing hydrocarbon vapor that then ignited. The incident occurred during maintenance on the Naphtha Hydrotreater (NHT) process unit. During routine operations involving an on-line switching of unit heat exchanger feed trains, a feed-effluent heat exchanger catastrophically failed, due to high temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA), releasing a hot, pressurized flammable hydrocarbon/hydrogen mixture. Seven workers, five men and two women, died as a result. It is the worst industrial disaster in the 37 years that L&I has been enforcing the state’s workplace safety law, the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act.

The heat exchangers were nearly 40 years old and were subjected to extreme heat and pressure, wide temperature and pressure swings, extensive chemical exposure and a near doubling of production over the years. These are all stresses that can damage this equipment, including causing cracking.

From Washington L&I press release.

NTSB Says Corrosion Found on Marshall, Michigan Ruptured Pipe

Close-up view of the section of pipe containing rupture

In testimony to a U.S. House of Representatives committee today, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman provided an update on the progress of the NTSB's investigation into an oil spill in Marshall, Michigan in July. Investigators found corrosion on the exterior surface of the accident pipe piece and the second pipe piece, and found surface cracks and indications of corrosion on the ruptured pipe. Government investigators estimate that between 800,000 and 1 million gallons of oil spilled as a result of the Marshall pipeline rupture.

For the full trascript of Ms. Hersman's testimony, see here.

For more information on the pipeline incident, see here.

Plains All American Pipeline to Pay $44.25M for Oil Spills

Cleanup in Homochitto National Forest in Mississippi;
photo courtesy of the US EPA.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Justice Department announced that Plains All American Pipeline and several of its operating subsidiaries have agreed to spend approximately $41 million to upgrade 10,420 miles of crude oil pipeline operated in the United States. The settlement resolves Plains’ Clean Water Act violations for 10 crude oil spills in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Kansas, and requires the company to pay a $3.25 million civil penalty

Approximately 6,510 barrels (273,420 gallons) of crude oil were discharged from various pipelines and one tank owned and operated by Plains into navigable waters or adjoining shorelines in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Most of the spills were caused by corrosion on the pipelines.

The $3,250,000 civil penalty will be paid to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

From the EPA website.

Corrosion Found on Enbridge Pipeline Prior to Leak

Federal regulators say earlier tests found corrosion along the pipeline that sent thousands of gallons of oil rushing into the Kalamazoo River this week and that, as recently as two weeks ago, its owner was talking about replacing pipe sections. No cause for the spill has been released, and it was not immediately known whether problems found in the earlier testing were in the area of the spill, or whether that part of the pipe was targeted for replacement.

Enbridge's Line 6B response website here.

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration corrective action order here (PDF, 322k).

National Transportation Safety Board announcement here.

From Detroit Free Press.

We Are All Safer

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was established by the United States Congress in 1967 to investigate and determine the causes of accidents in all modes of transportation. Since then, the Safety Board has investigated more than 110,000 aviation accidents and thousands of railroad, marine, highway, and pipeline accidents. The Board is recognized as one of the world’s premier independent accident investigation agencies
because of the expertise it has accumulated in more than three decades of experience.

This 1998 NTSB report We Are All Safer (PDF, 1.1Mb) lists NTSB-inspired improvements in transportation safety, involving aviation, railroad, marine, highway and highway bridges, pipelines, and hazardous materials transportation safety, many related to corrosion issues.

Congress must work to preserve the United States' critical infrastructure

Our critical infrastructure -- from bridges to pipelines, water and sewer mains to energy generation, transmission and exploration equipment -- is in trouble. Much of this infrastructure has reached or exceeded its design life, yet we are expecting many more years of service from it. Regardless of whether it is publicly or privately owned, the common denominator in all of these infrastructure problems and, in many cases, imminent failure, is corrosion.

In a recent address, Congresswoman Betty Sutton, of the 13th District, said, "Corrosion is not a sexy topic [What? ed.]. It's not a topic that will dominate the cable news networks or garner the top headline of a major newspaper . . . until something bad happens. But it's real, and it's a major concern." No one wants to see another bridge collapse like the one in Minneapolis, whose failure was contributed to by corrosion.

From Cleveland Dealer, Letters to the Editor (Russell Schabel, Strongsville)

For more information about Congresswoman Betty Sutton's fight against corrosion, see this previous post and her site here.

PHMSA Cased Pipe Workshop – April 28, 2010 - Baltimore, MD

PHMSA is holding a Workshop on the newly developed Guidelines for Integrity Assessment of Cased Pipe (PDF, 752k) at the Sheraton Inner Harbor, 300 South Charles Street, Baltimore, MD on April 28, 2010. The workshop focus will be for the public, pipeline operators, trade associations, and others to address ideas and concerns with successfully using External Corrosion Direct Assessment integrity evaluation methods and use of other technologies to assess pipelines in casings located within High Consequence Areas. The workshop is intended to discuss the PHMSA guidance "Guidelines for Integrity Assessment of Cased Pipe in Gas Transmission Pipelines" and related FAQs. The latest guidelines and FAQs are available online here.

More information on the workshop here. Register for free here.

See previous posts on casings and ECDA here and here.

ECDA For Cased Pipelines

From Pipeline and Gas Journal article "Mears Hosts Workshop On ECDA For Cased Pipelines":

Fifty-six integrity representatives from pipeline and gas utility companies across North America attended the day-long event at Mears headquarters in Rosebush, MI. Speakers included Max Kieba, Central Engineer, Office of Pipeline Safety, who gave directions to attendees on the upcoming PHMSA cased-pipe guidelines. Demonstrations included field indirect and direct inspections of coated and uncoated cased pipe, and a demonstration of wax filling a casing by Royston.

Casings are a common historical practice to prevent overburden stresses and mechanical damage to pipelines, typically at crossings, but they cause some unique problems with cathodic protection and corrosion surveys. Uncased crossings are usually preferable to cased crossings from a corrosion point-of-view. The NACE Standard SP0200 "Steel-Cased Pipeline Practices" (PDF, 833k, free to NACE members $35 for non-members) says:

1.2 Use of cased crossings should be avoided unless required by load considerations, unstable soil conditions, or when their use is dictated by sound engineering practices.

The issue has become critical in the gas transmission industry with the requirements of the Gas IMP rule and the limitations of performing ECDA on cased crossings. There was a PHMSA public meeting in July 2008 to address all the issues of cased crossings. There is more information on the PHMSA meeting website. In particular, this presentation from a liquid operator gives an overall perspective on the issues of casings.

The author also recently participated in an article in the March 2009 Pipeline and Gas Journal titled "Protecting Pipelines At Crossings: Are Casings Obsolete?".

Also, see previous post on the Pipeline Cased Crossings Casing Quality Action Team (CASQAT) here.

Retired NTSB investigator Charles Batten dead at 72

Charles Hershel Batten, 72, died at his residence in the Lake of the Woods community, Locust Grove, Va., on Oct. 24, 2009.

from Energy Pipeline News

PHMSA Approves Kinder Morgan's Alternative MAOP

Pipeline transportation and energy storage company Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP said on Oct. 8 that it has received authorization from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to increase the maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP) on selected segments of three major natural gas pipelines that it operates from 72 to 80 percent of design.

See full story at Energy Pipeline News here.

NACE is conducting a seminar on alternative MAOP in Houston, Texas in January 2010. More information on the event "Pipeline Integrity Management Seminar: Investigating the 80% Rule" can be found on NACE's website here.

The final rule can be found here. PHMSA has a frequently-asked questions page regarding the new rule here.

Congress berates PHMSA for lax permitting policy

United States House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) said of the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA):

This agency needs a house cleaning," Oberstar said. "Safety is not a one-time snapshot; it's continued vigilance... and this agency has lost its way and along the way has developed a very cozy relationship with the industry it regulates.

More information here.

Pipeline Cased Crossings

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has formed a Pipeline Cased Crossings Casing Quality Action Team (CASQAT) to discuss baseline assessments per 49 CFR Part 192 Subpart O and to develop draft technical guidance for addressing the integrity of cased crossings. The team had hoped to meet in Houston in conjunction with Corrosion Technology Week, but an internal review has raised some additional issues. A workshop is planned for later in the year.

For more information, click here.

EPA Proposes Stringent New Air Quality Standards for Lead

From sspc.org

First change since 1978 planned
The EPA has proposed revising the national ambient air quality standards for lead from 1.5 _g/m3 to within the range of 0.10 to 0.30 _g/m3 measured as total suspended particles. The allowable level will be based on the current time weighted average of a calendar quarter method or revised to apply across a 3-year span, with the reported lead value within the 3-year span based on the second-highest monthly average calculated during the span.

The agency is also proposing corresponding changes to data handling procedures, including those ambient air monitoring and reporting requirements related to sampling and analysis methods, network design, sampling schedule, and data reporting.

As required by court order, the EPA Administrator signed a notice of final rulemaking for publication in the Federal Register on September 15, 2008. A new monitoring network is expected to be in place by January 1, 2010, which will allow the agency to more accurately designate nonattainment areas by September 2011.

For further information see epa.gov.

Congress designates June 10th as ‘‘National Pipeline Safety Day"

PDF version of full text (156k) from the Government Printing Office (GPOAccess.com) here.