The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce committee hammered Stacy Cummings, interim director of the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), during a July 14 hearing on federal pipeline safety efforts. The Refugio spill was a major focus, with Santa Barbara County Director of Planning and Development Dianne Black testifying and U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) asking plenty of questions.
Capps pointed out a major disparity between the data from the smart PIG—the pipeline-scanning robot sent down Line 901 two weeks before it burst open above Refugio State Beach at the end of May—and the inspections after the fact. Experts said that the pipeline burst because its metal had worn too thin. The PIG indicated a 45 percent metal loss on certain sections of the pipe, whereas later inspections indicated almost 80 percent.
“Were you surprised by this disparity?” she asked Cummings.
“It takes time,” Cummings replied, “for various experts to analyze the data produced by a PIG.”
Capps reiterated her point: “It’s a disparity. And it’s disturbing. And it’s not the only time it’s happened,” she said. “These [inspections] are clearly not very accurate. What can be done to improve the accuracy?”
Other representatives hounded Cummings for her agency’s failure to comply with the standards of the federal Pipeline Safety Act of 2011, which laid out 42 statutes for the agency to meet through new rules and guidelines. Of those, 17 have yet to be addressed.
U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pennsylvania), asked Cummings pointedly if the pipeline safety administration would commit to a timeline or schedule to completely adhere to the final statues. Cummings promised the administration would move quickly, but gave no timeline.
U.S. Rep. David McKinley (R-West Virginia) gave the screw another turn. “It seems a few months don’t go by without another leak, explosion or fire,” he said. “It’s almost as though someone’s willing to let these things happen.” The coal country politician expressed concern that repeated pipeline disasters could turn people against fossil fuels.
“How will you grade the performance of the agency?” he asked Cummings. “Would you give yourself an A?”
Cummings replied her agency had fulfilled 26 of their 42 mandates under the 2011 law. McKinley cut her off, growing irritated. “How would you grade yourself? You’ve evaded the question twice already. What’s the schedule?”
After the tar-and-feathering, Carl Weimer with the Pipeline Safety Trust spoke. Since 2011, he pointed out, incidents that injure people are at an all-time low, but failures that “dump product into the environment” are increasing.
Why? For the bulk of modern safety features, there isn’t a modern regulation. He added that the PHMSA doesn’t have the resources to implement the Pipeline Safety Act.
Then, with Santa Barbara County Planning Director Dianne Black on the stand, the conversation reverted back to the perennial question of automatic shutoff valves, which Line 901 didn’t have. Black listed the county’s pipelines that had the valves; Line 96; Line 300; the Sisquoc pipeline, which runs to the Phillips 66 refinery; and the planned Foxen Canyon pipeline.
Capps: “Have the use of these advanced systems caused any ruptures?”
Black: “No.”
Capps: “No pipeline operators have gone bankrupt due to the cost of implementing these systems, to your knowledge?”
Black: “No.”
Then, fielding a question from Bobby Rush—the Illinois representative, who’s the only person to have defeated Barack Obama in an election—Dianne Black spoke of the coming months.
“The response in Santa Barbara County has really been cleanup efforts,” she said. “I think, under Unified Command, Plains has done a good job of addressing our concerns. What we’re yet to see is re-commissioning efforts.”
This article appears in Jul 16-23, 2015.