Plastic natural gas pipe failure data kept secret

[ensho]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/26/MNAH1L8QMB.DTL


-snip-

Companies such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which owns the line that caused the Cupertino blast, don't have to routinely report what they know about failure rates of particular brands of plastic pipes, even to the federal and state agencies that regulate pipeline operators. The federal government, bowing to industry resistance, has never required it.

-snip-

The line was an especially problematic type of pipe manufactured by DuPont called Aldyl-A. PG&E has 1,231 miles of the early-1970s-vintage pipe in its system.

Federal regulators singled out pre-1973 Aldyl-A starting in 2002 as being at risk of failing because of premature cracking. Explosions caused by failed Aldyl-A and other types of plastic pipe have killed more than 50 people in the United States since 1971, the federal government says.

Instead of requiring utilities to remove the problem plastic, however, U.S. pipeline safety officials have allowed the industry to compile limited data about failures in Aldyl-A and similar pipe and to keep the findings confidential.

-snip-
----------------------

thank goodness the truth has come out

[MADem]

1. Uh oh--PG&E has 1,231 miles of the early-1970s-vintage pipe in its system.

I wouldn't want to live near that pipe....