Opinion - Our View

POSTED: Saturday, Jun. 06, 2009

Remembering the pipeline tragedy not enough, vigilance required

A lot of things have changed in Bellingham in the past 10 years. There are more people living here. The economy has boomed and now struggles. Citizens have done more to create parks and preserve more land.

It's easy, then, a decade after the Olympic Pipe Line Co. pipeline burst in Whatcom Falls park and ignited into a fireball, to think of pipelines only as history. There is value in recalling what happened and continuing to honor the memory of the three people who died.

But remembering isn't really enough. There is still a danger that someday, because we weren't vigilant, the same pipeline, or another one, will open up its contents into our community, harming our children and leaving scars on families and the environment that last forever.

Bellingham citizens can not let that happen again.

Citizens of this community, and its leaders, must apply consistent pressure upon regulators and pipeline operators demanding they never let their guard down. Our community must continue to lead the national push for better regulations that require higher standards for safety controls and allow for more public access to information.

The facts of what happened in 1999 are firmly established 10 years later. A crew member of a local construction firm scraped Olympic's pipeline with a backhoe while working on a water lines project in Whatcom Falls Park. One human mistake. That person did not inform officials. Another mistake. And Olympic pipeline officials did not respond when tests of the line showed there was a weakness in the line in that area. A third mistake.

In the months following, the pressure in the pipeline spiked over and over and over as a faulty valve at a new pumping station in Skagit County continued to slam shut. Officials knew the valve was malfunctioning, but did not repair it. A fourth mistake.

On June 10, 1999, the pipeline blew out at the point of the original scrape, the weakness eventually giving in under the strain of continuous pressure surges. After the pipeline blew, officials at Olympic's control center in Renton noticed the problem. But they apparently thought it was a false alarm, and before even checking that assumption, they turned the line back on. A fifth, and most terrible, mistake.

More than 200,000 gallons of gasoline flowed from the burst pipe into the ground in the park, eventually finding its way to Hannah Creek and then down to Whatcom Creek. The fuel eventually ignited and scorched more than two miles of the creek, killing an 18-year-old and two young boys.

In the months that followed, our community learned of these five fatal human errors. But they also learned of many more. The industry was under-regulated with pipeline failures happened regularly across the country, with very little done about it. To anyone but an insider it appeared the regulations passed by Congress were done so to benefit, not control, the industry.

There was much anger in our community in the following years. But Bellingham channeled that anger into action. Our community, more than any other who had suffered at the fate of an industry with few controls, stood up and said "no more."

The fight led to change, including tougher regulations nationwide, and state government monitoring pipelines. The state Utilities and Transportation Commission now monitors the 27 pipelines in Washington and the work of that agency makes it easier for our citizens to find out where lines are and how well they are being maintained.

We would not call the changes a complete success, though. There are still many pipeline accidents in the U.S. every year. About half are caused by second-party damage, like the backhoe scraping the Olympic line.

The simple truth is that as long as there are pipelines running under the backyards, schools and parks in our community, there is always a danger of another June 10, 1999. As a community we have come far in 10 years, helping ourselves and others in the United States stay safe. But maintaining that requires never-ending vigilance.