POSTED: Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2010

Whatcom County Council approves pipeline safety rules on nearby building

Building within 500 feet of an underground fuel pipeline will trigger a call to the pipeline company, now that Whatcom County Council members approved new safety regulations Tuesday, July 27.

In a 6-1 vote, with Councilman Sam Crawford opposed, the council approved a new "consultation zone" for any building within 500 feet of either side of a pipeline. The rules also will ban high consequence buildings, like hospitals, schools or stadiums, from being built within that 1,000-foot zone.

The goal of the new law, proposed by Councilman Carl Weimer in 2007, is to improve communication between pipeline companies and property owners when any type of building or digging is occurring near a pipeline. Weimer initially proposed a 660-foot buffer on each side of the lines and required the property owner themselves to contact a pipeline company - even with a simple e-mail - before receiving a building permit, but the County Planning Commission changed the ordinance.

Commission members, after forming a subcommittee to deal with the proposal, unanimously reduced the consultation zone footage and decided to have county staff members contact the pipeline company instead.

Nothing in the new law will stop a permit application from going through. All it does is trigger a notification to the pipeline company about the application for a permit, so if the company would like to chat with a property owner early on in building stages, they now know about the project.

Crawford believes that the new law is much ado about nothing, and that there was no evidence there was any danger from pipelines. In particular, Crawford argued that the new law would be an infringement on families wanting to build a new home who now have an "onerous process."

"I believe it's unnecessary," he said, "There's no proof this is an issue."

Crawford's opinion was met with disagreement by several other council members, including Ward Nelson and Bill Knutzen.

"I'm just baffled that you're concerned over this," Nelson told Crawford. "Information is important, and information helps avoid problems."

Knutzen said he liked the ordinance, and that while it does trigger a notification, there is nothing in the law that stops the county from issuing a permit just because a pipeline company doesn't respond.