NTSB Safety Recommendation Letter P-82-037

Page 1Official PDFP.20/A NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. ISSUED: September 8, 1982 Forwarded to: Honorable Charles Fraas, Jr. Missouri Public Service Commission SAFETY RECOMMENDATION (S) P.O. Box 360 Jefferson City, Missouri 65102 _P-82-37 Honorable Christopher S. Bond Governor of Missouri Jefferson City, Missouri 65101 47 psig entered a low pressure distribution system which normally operated at 11 inehes About 10:30 a.m., e.s.t., on January 28, 1982, at Centralia, Missouri, natural gas at 3/4-inch-diameter steel pressure regulator control line at the Missouri Power and Light water column (0.40 psig) after a backhoe bueket snagged, ruptured, and separated the by the city of Centralia, was being used to clean a diteh located adjacent to the pressure Company's distriet regulator station No. 1. The backhoe, which was owned and operated regulator station. The high pressure gas entering customer piping systems in some cases resulted in high pilot light flames which initiated fires in buildings; while in other cases, 167 buildings affected by the overpressure, 12 were destroyed and 32 sustained moderate the pilot light flames were blown out, allowing gas to escape within the buildings. Of the to heavy damages. Five persons received minor injuries. 1/ Although Seetion 319.025 of the Missouri Statutes required the City of Centralia to notify the Missouri Power and Light Company of the proposed excavation operations, notice was not given. The Safety Board believes that had notice been given of the planned cleaning operations, the location of the underground gas facilities could have been identified and marked which would have shown the close proximity of the proposed excavation to the underground facilities. Had the City foreman been provided with this information, it is doubtful that the excavation would have been accomplished using powered excavation equipment. The State of Missouri recognized the necessity for preventing excavation related damages to underground facilities when it enacted Chapter 319, Missouri Statutes, which information about the location of underground facilities in the area of planned excavation requires persons to give notice to operators of underground facilities and obtain require excavators and operators of underground facilities to follow procedures designed before excavation could begin. The Safety Board supports enactment of state laws that to prevent damages which might endanger the publie. However, the Safety Board believes 1/ For more detailed information, read "Pipeline Aceident Report -- Missouri Power and Light Company, Natural Gas Fires, Centralia, Missouri, January 28, 1982," (NTSB-PAR-82-3). 3589#

Page 2-2- the effectiveness of any program to prevent damage to pipelines or other underground facilities depends on many separate but interrelated factors with statutory requirements constituting only one such factor. Other factors believed necessary are effective, convenient notification systems, aggressive educational and motivational activities to advertise the program, and efficient procedures for identifying and marking the location of underground facilities. The most efficient and convenient method for excavators to provide the notification required by Section 319.025 of the Missouri Statutes is through a one-call notification system. facilities, such as municipalities, as a center that allows an excavator to make one Such a system is established by utilities and other operators of underground telephone call to notify all participating operators of any planned excavation. The center then alerts each underground facility operator to the need for marking the location of its tacilities near the work area. This early notification also provides opportunity for an facilities. to implement additional action believed necessary for the protection of his One-call systems now operate in 44 States with a majority of these systems providing statewide coverage. Every State adjacent to Missouri has a one-call system with the systems in the States of Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma providing statewide coverage. After a one-call system has been established, the Safety Board has found that the other factors essential for effective damage prevention programs also have been initiated, generally as a part of the one-call system operations. Therefore, the National Transportation Safety Board recommends that the Governor of the State of Missouri and the Missouri Publie Service Commission: a statewide one-call excavation notification system. (Class II, Priority Encourage operators of underground facilities to develop and implement Action) (P-82-37) The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent Federal ageney with the accident investigations and by formulating safety improvement recommendations.' statutory responsibility "..to promote transportation safety by conducting independent (P.L. 93-633). The Safety Board is vitally interested in any actions taken as a result of its safety recommendations. Therefore, we would appreciate a response from you regarding action taken or contemplated with respect to the recommendation in this letter. BURNETT, Chairman, and MADAMS, BURSLEY, and ENGEN, Members, concurred in this recommendation. GOLDMAN, Viee Chairman, did not participate. Donalda. Zuen get By: Jim Burnett Woulbe Chairman#