Thank you Brett Shipp and WFAA for sticking with this story. Your incredible reporting has saved lives.
Atmos agrees to massive gas coupling repacement
by BRETT SHIPP
WFAA
News 8 has confirmed that hundreds of thousands of potentially deadly natural gas couplings in North Texas are coming out of the ground.
The compression coupling fittings and the aging steel pipes attached to them have been leaking and killing North Texans since 1980.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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It's amazing how long the RRC ignored houses blowing up. This had been going on for over a decade (reported on by WFAA for 4 years). I guess slow is better than never. Once again, Texans pay with their lives for reform. The RRC learns nothing, and we get to do it again with urban drilling and start from square one.
This only took the TRRC, what, 30 years after this first started?
thank you brett shipp and wfaa!
This is a response from the Railroad Commission when I asked why drilling was being allowed while the compression couplings are still in the process of being replaced. My concern is the allowance of unnecessary vibrations from drilling/fracking could cause an explosion and loss of life…this was their response…notice the word "known" was used in the completion of "known" service riser locations. When I spoke to a staff member at RRC, he said that they don't know where all of them are.
Ms. Feil:
The Railroad Commission acknowledges the receipt of your e-mail. I can respond to your questions regarding compression couplings and steel service lines.
With respect to concerns about compression couplings, in March 2007, the Commission's Pipeline Safety Division launched a comprehensive survey of natural gas pipeline operators' use of compression couplings. The study results, released in February 2008, did not indicate a systematic safety problem with compression couplings in Texas. The major cause of pipeline damage incidents was (and still is) related to third-party damage (digging and excavation), which is not attributable to material failure.
In November 2007, the Railroad Commission ordered the removal of all compression couplings at known service riser locations. The removal and replacement had to be completed within two years, and was in fact completed in November 2009. In addition, Atmos Energy-Mid-Tex has instituted a program to replace steel service lines. As of mid-December 2010, Atmos has replaced more than 20,000 service lines.
The Commission is aggressively pursing the adoption of a rule that will require all Texas natural gas distribution companies to survey their pipeline distribution systems for the greatest potential threats for failure and make replacements. This proposed new rule would apply to all distribution facilities, not just steel service lines. The proposed rule was published in the September 10, 2010, issue of the Texas Register, at this link: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/archive/September102010/PROPOSED/16.ECONOMIC%20REGULATION.html#32
Very truly yours,
Mary ("Polly") Ross McDonald
Acting Director, Pipeline Safety Division
Deputy General Counsel, Office of General Counsel
Railroad Commission of Texas
P. O. Box 12967
Austin, Texas 78711-2967
512-463-7008
polly.mcdonald@rrc.state.tx.us