ENVIRONMENT

'They lost what they call home': Danger of natural gas explosions lurks just beneath surface

A house in Camby, Ind. is up in flames before it was destroyed in November 2017 when a gas pipeline was struck, causing an explosion.

When two loud booms shook their quiet neighborhood last November, residents of Camby, Indiana, rushed outside and received a shocking lesson in gas line safety.

What they saw was far less harsh than the catastrophe that struck three small communities outside Boston in September, where aging iron gas lines and human error caused more than 30 explosions and house fires.

But the incident in Camby shows that Hoosiers are not immune from the worst, despite recent strides in pipeline safety.

About once a year — eight times in eight years — gas line damage led to an explosion in Indiana, a federal pipeline safety agency reports. In the Camby case, neighbors watched a house “crack apart” and a garage door blow out before the “house collapsed inward on itself in a ball of fire.” It was one of more than 20 major incidents since 2010 that injured a total of 11 people, killed one, and ignited buildings across the state.

Here in Indiana, an IndyStar analysis of records and data reveals, most of the iron pipe blamed for the Boston disaster has been removed. And pressurization is not a problem here, either, as it was there.

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Safety tips:This is how you can prevent an explosion if you smell natural gas.

But construction workers do still dig into natural gas pipelines, and utilities sometimes fail to locate them promptly or accurately, risking explosion. Regulators have fined utilities more than $2 million since 2014 for pipeline safety violations. Construction contractors have paid $2.7 million.

Still, utilities rely on the average consumer to notify them when something is wrong.

“I can’t stress enough that we need to follow the rules and regulations when it comes to natural gas,” said Plainfield Fire Territory Chief Joel Thacker,  who worked the Camby explosion and fire. “There is a lot of responsibility on both the citizen and on part of the utility to make sure that’s done right and we can avoid disaster.”

Danger lurking inches below surface

Modern pipeline safety standards trace their origins to Richmond, Indiana.

On a fateful day in 1968, gas leaking from a cast iron transmission line exploded outside a downtown sporting goods store. A second explosion occurred when gun powder inside the store ignited. In all, 41 people were killed, 150 injured, and 20 buildings were condemned after the incident, which inspired the federal Pipeline Safety Act.

Fifty years after the Richmond explosions, Indiana stands over one of the largest natural gas pipeline systems in the country.

With more than 75,000 miles of pipe spread across the state; that’s tens of thousands of miles carrying a flammable gas less than three feet under the ground, delivering fuel to homes and businesses.

It’s a precarious system that has grown safer over time. But when things go wrong, the consequences can be disastrous. That fragility was on display in Massachusetts in September, when more than 30 explosions and fires killed one, injured more than 20, devastated dozens of homes and left hundreds more evacuating for their safety. 

That kind of problem is unlikely to arise in Indiana, the IndyStar analysis has found. The incident in Massachusetts resulted from too much pressure flowing through aged iron pipes because of an error by Columbia Gas — the operator in charge of the pipelines in question — according to a National Transportation Safety Board report released Oct. 11.

Columbia Gas shares a parent company with an Indiana utility, Northern Indiana Public Service Company, but the two subsidiaries oversee very different systems. Indiana operators have almost completely eliminated iron pipeline from their natural gas systems. And the state has never seen an incident of over-pressurization, according to Stephanie Hodgin from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.

This burned out home is one of several structures impacted by natural gas explosions that shook three communities in northeast Massachusetts on September 13, 2018.

It was a recently replaced plastic pipe, not iron, that led to the explosion that killed Harry and Elizabeth Segall, both in their 80s, on Indianapolis east side in 1984.

Nonetheless, it was that fatal incident that prompted Citizens Energy Group to invest $650 million in replacing iron and bare steel pipeline throughout its system. In the 1980s, the company had more than 700 miles iron and bare steel pipeline. Now it’s working on replacing the last 10 miles.

Dan Considine, corporate communications manager for Citizens, said that aging infrastructure is an ongoing challenge for utilities, a fact that was highlighted this summer when a 3-by-8 foot sinkhole opened up Downtown. The hole was caused by the collapse of a 100-year-old sewer pipe, part of thousands of miles of deteriorating sewer lines in Marion County.

“Utilities is a business that needs to be maintained,” Considine said. “You can’t run it with short-term thinking.”

Upgrades on natural gas pipeline systems throughout Indiana, as well as updated safety procedures, have caused a decline in the rate of accidents and violations. But maintaining the system isn’t just about safety — new pipes mean fewer leaks.

Considine doesn’t like to compare Indianapolis to other cities — each system is dealing with its own unique mix of problems. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to see how Indianapolis is faring better than cities with older pipes.

In 2013, Environmental Defense Fund partnered with Google Earth to uncover the severity of natural gas leaks in urban areas. Google vehicles were fitted with gas detection technology and driven around several American cities.

The project found only one leak for every 200 miles they drove around Indianapolis.

By contrast, a similar drive around Boston found one leak for every single mile they drove.

Vectren and NIPSCO have launched more recent efforts to replace iron pipes in their system, largely shielding Indiana from some of the challenges of an aging pipeline system as it’s experienced out east.

Pipeline damages disrupt lives

That said, Indiana residents are not in the clear. There is another threat that plagues the natural gas system both here and across the country: damage caused by excavation.

Take the incident from last November in Camby, just 15 miles outside Indianapolis. A family was left without a roof over its head when a contractor began digging near their house and struck a pipeline. As gas leaked out, it built up in their home and ignited an explosion that completely consumed the house, causing more than $170,000 in damage. Though the young family of four was not home at the time and no one was hurt, the family dog was killed.  

According to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Indiana has had only 20 natural gas distribution pipeline incidents since 2010. 

But PHMSA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation, records only the worst events, in which a death or hospitalization occurred or more than $50,000 in property damage was incurred.

By contrast, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has identified over 6,435 violations of the state's Call Before You Dig law since 2013, the law meant to prevent damage from excavation work. The agency has also collected $4.5 million in civil penalties for violations since 2014. 

Few of those events rose to the federal reporting standards, and the sheer volume of violations on the state level highlights a perilous industry and the danger lurking just inches below the surface.

By all accounts, it was routine work on a Monday morning that left the family in Camby without a home. But not long after a contractor for a cable company began boring under the driveway the workers started to smell natural gas and realized something was wrong.

Within the hour, an explosion blew the roof off the house and flames engulfed the walls. Within another half hour, the home was reduced to rubble.

“When the family left that morning to go to work or take kids to school, whatever their schedule was that day, they could not have foreseen that this would happen,” said Thacker with Plainfield Fire Territory. “While they were happy they were not home and were all safe, they were in shock and disbelief — they had lost what they call home.”

IndyStar was unable to reach the family for this story. The parents and two young children had moved in, renting the home, just weeks before it was lost, according to neighbors.

Thacker said it is hard to know if someone would have been able to get out of the house. But if someone had been home during the explosions, he added, “it could have been much worse, and certainly I imagine we would have been looking at injuries and possible fatalities.”

Though tragic and horrific, the incident in Camby and its cause are not an anomaly.

“Damages to natural gas lines continue to be the leading cause of injuries and fatalities associated with the transportation of natural gas throughout the country and here in Indiana,” said Hodgin with the state’s utility regulatory commission. “Damages to underground gas lines during excavation can cause dangerous explosions, put strain on emergency response resources … and disrupt daily life in communities.”

The rubble and remains of a house in Camby, Ind. that was destroyed in November 2017 when a gas pipeline was struck, causing an explosion.

Call before you dig

Indiana’s “Call Before You Dig” law requires anyone excavating to contact the 811 call center at least two days prior to digging with detailed information of the plans. The gas utility then is required to accurately mark their pipes and infrastructure — sprayed markings you’ve likely seen on the ground — within two days so that the excavator may dig safely.

While this law is critical to maintaining the safety of residents and excavators across the state, it only works if it is followed. In the last eight years, half of the 20 major natural gas incidents in Indiana have resulted from excavation damage — more than any other cause.

Some of those incidents leveled homes while others left both workers and citizens injured — including one explosion in New Albany in 2011 that injured six when contractors struck an unmarked gas main.

In the nearly 6,500 cases since 2013 where a violation was found, the excavator or contractor was deemed to be at fault two-thirds of the time, according to the IURC. Generally, Hodgin told IndyStar, those issues involved not following the rules.

The other third of the time, the gas utility or operator was found to be at fault. In most of those instances, the utility did not locate its gas lines in a timely or accurate manner.

Such was the case in the Camby incident. According to a petition filed by the Pipeline Safety Division, Vectren — the utility in this case — failed to locate its pipe lines for 16 days after it was required to do so. After waiting, the excavator nonetheless began digging and struck the line.

The case filing said that Vectren has failed to timely locate its pipes in numerous instances, including at least 310 times in 2016 and 2017. It also has failed to have accurate maps and records, leading to pipeline damage at least 120 times in the same years.

Representatives for Vectren said that two different requests were filed through “Call Before You Dig” for the Camby incident — the second filed after the first one went unanswered — which caused confusion. Spokeswoman Chase Kelley also noted that the company responds to thousands of requests to locate lines, and that the company has seen a 25 percent reduction in damages since 2015. 

Still, Vectren has agreed to pay $400,000 over the Camby incident, the maximum penalty allowed under state law.

"This incident is a vivid reminder of the severe damage that may be caused by excavation damages, the catastrophic risk to public safety from non-compliance, and the importance of operators adhering to applicable statutes and regulations," according to the final order filed by the pipeline safety division within the IURC.

Vectren “understands that it is important to continue to engage in continuous improvement efforts to avoid this type of incident,” spokeswoman Kelley said.

Vectren is not alone: NIPSCO and Citizens Gas were also fined a total of $180,000 several years ago. The commission found the utilities were not following procedures or keeping accurate pipeline records, resulting in pipeline locations either being misidentified or not found.

The damage rates have been on a downward trend in Indiana over the last several years. In 2017 there were just under two damages for every 1,000 tickets that were called into Indiana’s 811 center. That is down from more than 3.6 damages per the same number of tickets in 2012.

Thacker said he fortunately does not see many natural gas explosions like the one they responded to just about a year ago. That said, they do get called out on a number of gas leaks when lines are struck during excavation, he added, and he knows the potential.

“There are a lot of variables when it comes to having an explosion and fire from natural gas," Thacker said, "and I don’t want to get in a situation where we’re taking the chance of that happening.” 

A wake up call

The investments by Indiana utilities to modernize the state’s natural gas system have made Hoosiers safer and the system less leaky. But activists calling for a phase out of fossil fuels suggest that the system is already outdated.

Those arguments were bolstered this month when a report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested that greenhouse gas emissions need to be drastically cut in the next decade to avoid unprecedented environmental degradation.

Natural gas has long been considered a “bridge fuel” to help fossil fuel-based societies transition away from coal and oil. But lately, environmental activists are calling for a complete transition away from fossil fuels.

Those voices are loud in Massachusetts, where activists have referred to the September explosions a “wake up call.” They’re calling for Columbia Gas, which has offered to move those affected by the blasts off of natural gas, to offer more renewable options.

Indiana’s newer distribution pipes should keep leaks low. But a lot of gas is lost upstream near where it is gathered, said Nathan Phillips, a professor of earth and environment at Boston University. It doesn’t take a lot of leaked natural gas to make up the difference between it and other fuels.

 “We have to go way past half as bad as coal,” said Phillips, who was reached by IndyStar while on the road to deliver induction cooktops to people affected by last month’s explosions. “Whether you like it or not, the math of climate change demands that we transition off all fossil fuels."

Emily Hopkins and Sarah Bowman cover the environment for IndyStar. Contact Emily at 317-444-6409 or emily.hopkins@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @_thetextfiles. Call Sarah at 317-444-6129. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah.

IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.