My Pipeline Worries

Mike HolmstromSan Jose, CA

The 600 pound monsters still in the room for pipeline safety

My background with pipelines:

San Bernardino 1989: Train derailment on top of a pipeline, cleanup of spilled load and train wreckage, but no hydrostatic test!

The first worry: LF-ERW seams

Flash seam welds also weak ILI has missed areas that failed just a few

years later. Get more picky with anomalies on this type of pipe?

Is spike hydrotesting enough? Spike test pipelines with LF-ERW pipe that

have not had previous seam failures? Still seen failing: Jackson WI in August 2012,

Jones & Laughlin LF-ERW made in 1961

Reinventing the same problem?

LF-ERW pipe not made in 40 years. But, lack of fusion was seen in modern pipe by x-rays.

Second: Locate failures

Locate Tech training Abandoned in place pipelines misleading? Plastic pipe locating woes Resolution of buried objects that seem to be

pipes NEVER go by just maps, drawings, or GPS

to dig by!!

Third: Depth of coverage

Soil loss, drought, etc., add up over decades

Some think you don't have to call 811 if you don't dig deep enough, yet, utilities may become very shallow!

My Efforts on the Web

Working hard on the Wikipedia “List of pipeline accidents in the United States”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipeline_accidents