Aging gas pipe at risk of explosion nationwide

[dave29]

Source: Yahoo

SAN BRUNO, Calif. – An ominous theme has emerged from the wreckage of a deadly pipeline explosion in California: There are thousands of pipes just like it nationwide.
Utilities have been under pressure for years to better inspect and replace aging gas pipes — many of them laid years before the suburbs expanded over them and now at risk of leaking or erupting.

Experts say the California disaster epitomizes the risks that communities face with old gas lines. The pipe was more than 50 years old — right around the life expectancy for steel pipes. It was part of a transmission line that in one section had an "unacceptably high" risk of failure. And it was in a densely populated area.

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Thousands of pipelines nationwide fit the same bill, and they frequently experience mishaps. Federal officials have recorded 2,840 significant gas pipeline accidents since 1990, more than a third causing deaths and significant injuries.
"In reality, there is a major pipeline incident every other day in this country," said Carl Weimer, Pipeline Safety Trust's executive director. "Luckily, most of them don't happen in populated areas, but you still see too many failures to think something like this wasn't going to happen sooner or later."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_pipeline_explosion

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There is a price for safe well maintained infrastructure. Is America willing to pay it?

[unkachuck]

1. the terrorists....

....don't have to worry about blowing us up, the capitalists and their corporations will do it for them....

[dave29]

2. this isn't about terrorists or capitalists or corporations

it's about people owning their infrastructure not placing blame for it's failure. Greed is a human trait, not affixed to some spooky corporate, capitalist or terrorist monster, it grows in the hearts of those who benefit from wealth. They are people... flawed, greedy people. They take advantage of a system we've allowed to fester.

We can point fingers all we want, but the blame lies in complacency and pointing fingers while our neighborhoods burn.

[Downwinder]

5. With ownership comes responsibility. When the Companies cease

to profit from the ownership they will dump in onto the public as they have in the past.

[quakerboy]

12. Which people own the infrastructure?

Can you name them? I cannot. Thats the point of the corporations.

While greed is a human trait and is not going away anytime soon, the corporate structures we have allowed to come to exist allow people to cultivate it with impunity and anonymity.

Personal responsibility is not applicable in this situation. If I suspect there is a danger in a gas line in my neighborhood, who do I call to get action on it? Can I go test it myself to know whether it is safe? If I call the gas company, to report that I went to city hall and looked up when it was put in, and it is 5 years past its expected useful life, Will they jump to and replace it post haste? Can I get a line to the CEO to let them know directly about this problem? Can I even leave a message for that CEO(or whichever officer has the final say on whether its time to replace that bit of pipe) with any real expectation that he/she will see it?

No. The blame is not in individual complacency. The blame is in a system designed for profit, instead of being designed to keep the necessary infrastructure of our daily life in good operating condition.

[dave29]

it is a meta statement

much in the sense that we own our society, whether we like it or not. We agree about most of what you said, by the way :hi:
We may not be able to fix the gas pipe ourselves, but we have entered into a social construct in which we have allowed these scenarios to play out. Blame corporations, sure. Who own corporations? We do. May not seem like it, but cut right to the core, we are them, they are us.

[quakerboy]

18. I disagree

Corporations are not the same as the government. I do not own corporations. I have one small share of a credit union, which I do try to keep track of as best I can. I do not own any other corporations or bits of corporations. I think that if you look up ownership, it is not so much we who own corporations in any meaningful proportion, as "they".

And to be completely fair about things, I have not allowed any scenarios to play out. I have been frozen out of the political process since the day I was able to vote, and I have never been in a position to have financial impact on anything.

[dave29]

19. do you pay utility bills? n/t

[quakerboy]

24. I already adressed that

Does paying that utility bill endow me with any power to effect change in this system?

[dave29]

17. dupe

[rhett o rick]

3. No, fuck no. nm

[defendandprotect]

4. Keeping utilities privatized and the lobbyists busy ---

[depakid]

13. The trouble is that Republicans, libertarians and right wing Dems would scream and shout

about "wasting MY tax money" on maintenance, too.

As they do with every other infrastructure system that's set up to serve their collective needs.

[defendandprotect]

14. The trouble is that Democrats don't "scream and shout" enough ....!!!

And when we do our own party wants to shut us down --

Rather, the GOP succeeds because their right wing is NOISY --

and they use it -- to continue to move government/parties to the right --

We need to get noisier and move politics and parties to the LEFT!!

[depakid]

16. Solving problems with responsible public policy removes the need to shout

Might be that some of those ostensibly on "our side" yet wearing the wrong uniform inside might have to be called out to get it done- and in that sense, we agree.

[defendandprotect]

23. Nonsense . . . why are people going to DC to march and parade past the White House..???

Why are the bought and paid for T-baggers getting so much attention from media?

We need more demonstration -- protests -- not less --

including here at DU where the FEAR of criticism is thick as molasses --

It is that very criticism which moves government to the LEFT --

just as we see right wing criticism having too often moved the parties to the right!

[LongTomH]

21. +1

I agree entirely!

[Gamey]

6. National Pipeline Mapping System

can show you major lines in your state and county.

https://www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov/searchp/newlogin.asp?Search=Pub

Edit to fix link

[dave29]

7. Thanks for this, and for everyone remember two things:

1) Call before you dig (811)
2) Report any suspicious gas smells, warn neighbors, and follow up.

[Downwinder]

8. You might have generated more traffic than the site can handle. n/t

[lonestarnot]

11. Hmmmf. Maybe I tried before you fixed it. I'll try again.

There is a problem connecting to the map service. Please try again later.
Error information: Date: 09-14-2010 Time:00:56:10 Source:ActiveXConnector Class: ArcIMSConnector Description:Invalid at the top level of the document.

[Downwinder]

9. PG&E's solution.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/13/BA261FDDD8.DTL&tsp=1

[glinda]

10. Ha! And Koch (Brothers) just sent an informational pkg. to our home

today explaining they had pipes near our home or something. ugh*

[KillCapitalism]

15. Here's an idea...

we could actually create some jobs repairing these aging gas lines, but that would take the government to nationalize the industry. Even then I'm not sure they would create many jobs, we need a WPA type program doing these kind of things now.

Too bad our leaders don't think more like Hugo Chavez & consider nationalizing industries.

[madokie]

20. And all this time the companies who own them are making shitloads of cash

It should be criminal the way the oil companies do business at about every turn they make

[Crowman1979]

22. Why we're still using gas stoves or heaters in this day of age?

It's just one big fire hazard IMO.

[Kablooie]

25. Homes destroyed and families killed is a reasonable price for smaller government and lower taxes.

Because it means *I* will have a little more money! Hooray!

(That kind of thing always happens to someone else. It can't happen here.)







:sarcasm:

[Doremus]

26. WE have paid and are paying the price. It's the robber barons' turn now. nt