POSTED: Friday, Jan. 22, 2010

Fate of state pipeline safety committee up in the air

Gregoire wants to eliminate 78 groups

A citizen committee created in response to the 1999 Olympic Pipeline explosion in Bellingham was saved in the state House of Representatives Thursday, Jan. 21, despite Gov. Chris Gregoire's efforts to eliminate it.

The Citizens Committee on Pipeline Safety was created after the explosion, which killed three young people in Bellingham. The committee was instrumental in helping develop major reforms to the state's oil and natural gas pipeline regulations and is also responsible for providing guidance to the federal Department of Transportation on pipeline safety issues.

Shuttering the committee was just one such proposed action by Gregoire's administration in House Bill 2617, which would eliminate some 78 boards, commissions and advisory groups that interact with state government.

Other entities included in the initial proposal included the Children's Services Advisory Committee, the Employee Retirement Benefits Board and the state Sunshine Committee, created to assess the legitimacy of more than 300 records exemptions in the state's Public Records Act.

Language in HB 2617 killing the committee was removed by state Rep. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia, chairman of the House Committee on Government & Tribal Affairs, though similar language is in a companion bill in the Senate, SB 6426.

The committee only costs between $10,000 and $19,000, depending on the source of information, so getting rid of it was more about efficiencies in government, said Dave Danner, executive director of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. The costs are paid for by the oil and natural gas industry.

Danner said that the point of the committee was to help write the major safety reforms in the early 2000s.

"It's done its job," Danner said.

But stopping the work of the pipeline safety group doesn't sit well with the Pipeline Safety Trust, said Executive Director Carl Weimer, who manages the only nonprofit organization nationwide that advocates for pipeline safety.

Weimer, also a Whatcom County Council member, lobbied Rep. Hunt and other members of the committee with a letter explaining why the non-profit thought the safety committee should remain intact.

"(The committee) has an impressive record of accomplishments and perhaps its greatest has been bringing together citizens, local governments, the pipeline industry and regulators, who have created a culture of pipeline safety in the state through the strong relationships they developed," Weimer said in his letter to officials.