SAN BRUNO, Calif. — Some of Pennsylvania’s natural-gas pipelines are 120 years old. Portions of lines also date to the 1800s in Massachusetts. Hundreds of miles in New York state are made of leak-prone cast iron.
Tens of thousands of miles of pipelines that run beneath communities nationwide are old or decaying. An Associated Press survey found that no states in the parts of the country with the greatest concentration of people and pipes have ordered a safety review in the week since a deadly blast in California raised public awareness of potential problems.
Officials from Massachusetts to Texas say their inspections are adequate, and they are waiting for federal investigators to determine the cause of the Sept. 9 gas-line explosion that killed four in San Bruno, Calif., before deciding what to do.
Consumer advocates and plaintiffs’ attorneys say the response fits a familiar pattern: Utilities and customers won’t pay the millions of dollars needed to replace corroded pipes, the lines fail and regulators act only after a disaster.
There are more than 2 million miles of pipelines across the U.S., and upgrading them is an enormous task, starting with determining the worst sections. Because regulators rely heavily on reports from utility companies themselves, critics say, it is impossible to gain an accurate picture of just how decrepit the system has become.
Chris Hogan, a spokesman for the American Gas Association, the industry trade group, said that utility companies already spend billions every year to keep the network of gas pipes safe and that more inspectors and harsher fines won’t improve safety.
The last significant reforms for the industry came in 2002 — after several high-profile accidents in Texas, Washington and New Mexico killed a combined 17 people. That was when mandatory inspections were first required for transmission lines that go through densely populated areas.
Mike Danko, a lawyer who won a case against Pacific Gas & Electric after a deadly gas-line explosion in 1992 in Santa Rosa, Calif., said utilities use equipment until it fails because it’s cheaper than pre-emptively replacing miles of pipes.
“They run the equipment until it fails and then deal with it,” said Danko, who is representing victims of the San Bruno blast. “That high-pressure gas line in San Bruno was 60 years old. Do you have to be an engineer to figure out it needs to be replaced?”
