What's going on in Massachusetts? Why were there explosions this week? Is there anyone on the board who was affected or who has more information about the incident that occurred this week?
My son was called up to mass. From CT. For mutual aid. He works in the gas line industry. Apparently one of their guys accidentally tied a regular (8 psi) gas main into a primary (100psi) gas main by mistake, which grossly over pressurized 26 miles of gas main which fed 8,400 houses. 1 person died, 1 person had their legs blown off, 2 or 3 houses literally blew up and there where approximately 80 residential structural fires.
I met Ted Kennedy a few days before Thanksgiving in 1985. He docked his sail boat on our pier at a Coast Guard small boat station. It was early in the morning and our crew was just getting up. I sat at a table with Kennedy and had a cup of coffee. He talked about the time he and his brothers Jack and Joe were boating through the Cape Cod Canal when their engine quit. They were rescued by the CG and since then the Kennedy's became huge supporters of the CG. The visit by Ted Kennedy was a surreal one for me.
Sad - I wondered if the problem is crumbling infrastructure. I seemed to have read about old gas pipes. I have a relative who lives in Massachusetts, so I was concerned when I heard about the incident, yesterday, until I heard from her. Fortunately, she is fine and not near the epicenter.
That is ultra tragic. A different problem but one I caused for the Phone Company one time. And it was not poor training for me. I simply flubbed things up. It was my final wiring assignment that day and I still do not know why I did it, but I took one wire to the wrong terminal and hooked it up. I was about to leave for the day. What it did was cause the computer upstairs to go crazy each time any of 800 phones would get used by customers. I came to work the next AM and was told I screwed things up something terrible. Some of the guys expected me to get fired but I was in top graces with the boss over the place I worked at. I was told that by the computer upstairs trouble cards were coming out so fast it was covering a part of the floor with the spill of cards. So one wire could ruin the day for 800 people due to my error. I had done that same job for months and months without doing something like that. I would love to explain what took place but I know I crossed up the panel by wiring from the correct terminal to one that I should not connect to. Course all of us learned a lesson that day.
NiSource's Columbia Gas subsidiary has provided little information on the cause of the incident, and Massachusetts Gov. Baker has placed rival utility Eversource (NYSE:ES) in charge of the response to the explosion, replacing Columbia Gas. Thousands of people remain unable to return to their homes while crews visited homes of 8,600 affected customers to shut off gas meters and conduct safety inspections. If NiSource is found liable, it could face substantial fines; for example, Consolidated Edison paid a $153M fine after a year-long investigation into a 2014 gas pipeline explosion in New York, and PG&E paid $1.6B in civil and criminal fines related to a 2010 pipeline explosion near San Francisco. The Massachusetts natural gas distribution system is one of the oldest in the U.S., with the age of some of the piping more than a century old. https://seekingalpha.com/news/33905...cent-biggest-gas-pipeline-accident-since-2010
The search for answers: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...PP/story.html?p1=Article_Trending_Most_Viewed Evacuees: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...hey-carried/BMFSw1kyAxdks0oa6SK5YM/story.html
Thanks for this article. If NiSource is fined, it would be nice if that money was used to help the victims and upgrade piping.
Excellent idea. I don't know about the extent to which NiSource (Columbia Gas) is insured for this type of disaster, but it is being investigated and this could well bankrupt it. One community, North Andover, is comparatively affluent, and Lawrence is on the poorer end of the spectrum. It'll be interesting to sell which is up and running faster.
They are idiot proof today, but a lot of the gas infrastructure was built before the need for multiple lines in one street became a regular occurrence. It used to be all gas lines had a lower pressure and there was never more than one gas line under a street. Today, the gas infrastructure is infinitely more complex and you can have two gas lines of the same diameter, but one is a thin walled pipe of low pressure and the other is a thick walled pipe of high pressure. As long as the gas companies have some sort of accurate GIS maps of where things are, then the two pipes will not get confused. The trouble is that older gas maps were often times not updated or the transition from a paper based mapping system to a computer based mapping system may have missed some important as-built records. If you believe there is only one pipe under the ground, you cannot make a mistake. Of course if there are two pipes and you only believe there is one, then problems can happen. Since repair protocol means you turn off the gas prior to any cutting of a pipe, the difference in pressure will never be noticed. The only clue the workers have is the pipe thickness which is readily apparent in most cases, but imagine yourself in the bottom of a ditch at midnight in a rainstorm repairing what maps say is the only gas line so grandmother doesn't freeze to death, and you can understand how something like this can happen. Frankly, the fact that is doesn't happen all the time speaks to the very high standards of professionalism to the guy in the trench fixing the pipe. Or the guy could have been a complete dumb ass. That happens sometimes as well.
The mayor of Lawrence is signaling that North Andover will be restored first but says that it's because of the complications dealing with Lawrence's greater population density.
The same that is happening all around America! Trump has constantly and significantly working in loosening standards for pipelines and other infrastructure for companies which will save lots of extra profits for these stockholders! Its harder on the people burned alive or blown up as these pipelines fail, or aquifers get below destroyed for thpusands of ranchers and wildlife, but hey! Can't make billilnaires double their profits without frying some eggs, right?
Crumbling and ancient infrastructure, from gas systems like this to the trains in NYC to bridges and roads crumbling. Those in charge are far more interested in making war than in improving the infrastructure.
