Spring/Summer 2000 One Year Later - The End of the Line: Politics & Pipeline Regulation

Spring/Summer 2000 - One Year Later

The End Of The Line: Politics & Pipeline Regulation
by Ellen Hutchinson

A pipeline bursts and the focus is on the point of rupture. Questions hover like the looming plume created by the explosion, but answers are not found only at the site. Although pipeline accidents occur in local communities, they are not isolated. It is not the pipe that fails; it is the system that operates the pipe. National pipeline regulations are inadequate. To find the answers, one must follow the pipe to the source of national regulations — the end of the line: Washington, D.C.

photo courtesy of Carl WeimerShortly after the Bellingham explosion, a group of concerned citizens formed SAFE Bellingham to prevent Olympic Pipe Line Co. from replacing its pipe before anyone knew what had caused the explosion at Whatcom Creek.

"We found that it really wasn’t a Bellingham incident," Carl Weimer, executive director of SAFE Bellingham explained. "When you looked around, these things were going on on a regular basis all over the country."

David Bricklin, an attorney hired by the City of Bellingham, discovered that a franchise agreement between the City of Bellingham and Olympic Pipe Line had lapsed a few years before. This franchise agreement would have enabled Olympic to replace the pipeline within a matter of days. Without this agreement, Weimer said, "the city had some leverage to say to Olympic, ‘You have to do all of these safety things before you fire up this pipeline again.’"

Through the realization that pipeline accidents occur not only in Bellingham, SAFE Bellingham joined together with two other groups, Cascade Columbia Alliance and The National Pipeline Reform Coalition, to put together The National Pipeline Safety Reform Conference in Washington, D.C.

The April 2000 conference brought together citizen groups and government officials from 15 states to discuss pipeline issues and reform. The purpose of the conference was to draw congressional attention to pipelines and build a national network of reform activists.

Washington, D.C., can seem removed from the nation it represents, with administrative buildings crowding the boulevards suggesting an impenetrable bureaucracy. The formidable structure, however, did little to intimidate activists.

Lois Epstein, a senior engineer at Environmental Defense, formerly Environmental Defense Fund, who has been involved in pipeline reform for a number of years described the conference as a "promised land" for pipeline reformers.

At the conference, pipeline reform activists and elected officials filled the round tables.

The three pipeline officials present remained as inconspicuous as possible.

On a yellow, oversized conference handout, beneath the Bellingham plume read in block letters "DON’T FORGET!" Terry Boss, a representative from the National Gas Association, shuffled those words "DON’T FORGET!" underneath a pile of papers.

The ice water and linen tablecloths made some people forget, as Epstein pointed out, that this conference was to put "industry on notice that business-as-usual is not acceptable."

As a division of the Department of Transportation, the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) sets the standards for petroleum and natural gas pipelines. OPS is responsible for 160,000 miles of hazardous materials pipelines (petroleum and oil) and 1 million miles of natural gas pipelines, Epstein explained.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent agency that investigates incidents such as plane crashes and pipeline explosions to find causes and make recommendations for action. NTSB makes recommendations to OPS, industry, trade associations, and standard-setting bodies.

Pipeline regulations are extremely vague according to Don Deaver, a former Exxon employee of 33 years. He describes how the pipeline industry convinced the federal government in the ‘70s that the best way to regulate would be to allow them "room to be innovative." The industry said, Deaver continued, that all it needed was "general performance criteria" and it would "take care of the details." In effect, the pipeline industry is allowed to regulate itself.

Epstein said these nebulous regulations have enabled the pipeline industry to revel in obscurity while raking in the profits.

President of the National Pipeline Reform Coalition Bob Rackleff said that in the last two decades, all interstate oil pipeline companies enjoyed an average annual rate of net earnings, after taxes, of 31 percent.

"Pipelines are a phenomenally profitable business," Rackleff said.

"The sole regulator of the nation’s pipeline system, OPS has a maximum staffing level of 105 people. It only has 45 field inspectors to police some 1.7 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines nationwide, or about one field inspector for every 35,000 miles of pipeline," Rackleff explained. This can be compared to the Coast Guard, which has over 42,000 uniformed and civilian personnel to help enforce regulations on the oil tanker ship and barge industry, he said.

According to Rackleff, oil pipeline regulations fail to specify any periodic inspections except for the "visual surveillance of the right-of-way."

Harold Underwood, Jr., manager of external affairs at ARCO, said that history tends to guide forward movement.

"Look at the cause of the incidents in the past," he said, "and determine what you might do to cause those things not to happen anymore."

This mentality, however, has not been demonstrated by the OPS.

"OPS has no map of the pipeline system it’s supposed to regulate," Rackleff said. "It has no comprehensive data on the age and condition of these pipelines, types of pipe used, the use of protective measures like coatings, or what pipeline companies have better or worse safety records. In short, OPS doesn’t have a clue of what the safety problems are, where they are, who’s responsible, or what to do about them."

Rich Felder, who heads the Office of Pipeline Safety, illustrated Rackleff’s point by responding that he was "no expert" when questioned about the Bellingham situation.

In response to the inability of OPS to create and enforce adequate pipeline safety regulations, three bills are proposed. Both Sen. Murray and Congressman Metcalf’s bills propose an increase in state authority to regulate pipelines. The administration’s bill focuses on improving safety measures and enforcement at a federal level.

"The era of unchallenged power of the pipeline industry can be over soon – if we decide to make that happen. We have the facts on our side. We have the spirit and determination. All we need is the strength in numbers it will take to change decades of official neglect and industry carelessness," Rackleff said.

The conference tables abandoned and the media cameras packed away, it was apparent that what is obvious is not easily implemented. Pipeline regulation has been underground for many years and the negligence of OPS has corroded its legitimacy. As pipeline issues bubble to the surface they must be dug up and examined thoroughly. Politics and oil are slippery, but adequate and enforced regulation can contain both.

Spring/Summer 2000 - One Year Later

The End Of The Line: Politics & Pipeline Regulation by Ellen Hutchinson

The End Of The Line: Politics & Pipeline Regulation
by Ellen Hutchinson