Natural Gas Leaks? Homes Exploding?

masslive.com

     If one buys a classic old house, it might require extensive renovations. Of course, most tend to focus renovations that show and make the house have the amenities we want in this day and age. These might include upgrading the bathrooms, modernizing the kitchen, replacing the windows, pulling up the wall-to-wall carpets and refinishing the hardwood, and even adding central air-conditioning. There are also things that may have to be done simply for one’s safety and well-being. These repairs are invisible and include changing all the wiring and piping in the house. Sometimes this just has to be done to keep water or gas pipes from leaking and faulty wiring from starting fires.
     The same applies to our municipalities. We have heard about the state of bridges and roadways for many years. President Trump even made it a campaign issue promising to fix the infrastructure. But, there is another danger that is very much like the wiring and pipes in the old house. It is the million miles of aging water and gas lines. Certainly, the water catastrophe in Flint, MI is an example of what can go wrong with aging pipes and poor management choices.
     What happened in Andover and Lawrence in the Merrimack Valley of MA yesterday, September 13th, is yet another precursor of what could happen if we don’t start taking this seriously. The natural gas pipelines in that area are antiquated and need replacement. Columbia Gas, the provider, has been working on that. Some reports speculate that a rise in gas pressure caused gas to leak into homes resulting in the explosions. I am suspecting that the rise in pressure might have been due to turning parts of the gas lines on and off for the repair activities.
     These kinds of leaks and explosions are not new. The Merrimack Valley incidents really got my attention simply because we have close friends and family that live there and were affected by the evacuations. Thankfully they are all safe and their homes all intact. Until I started reading about this, I simply forgot that there are numerous examples of leaks caused by aging gas pipelines. There was one in March 2014 in New York City that killed three people and brought down two apartment buildings. I remember that event now after reading about it again. Like most others, I stopped thinking about it like a day later and buried as deep as the decaying pipe infrastructure.
     The problem is that many of the natural gas pipelines are made from wrought or cast iron and are decades old. Remember that gaslight pre-dated electric lighting. So, in some cities these pipelines are ninety and even over one hundred years old. Cast iron piping is particularly prone to leaking. There are over six thousand miles of such piping in New York city and there two thousand plus miles of the same in Chicago. It is a seriously hard and expensive task to replace piping in suburban regions where there are more open spaces to dig and work. Just imagine the added cost to do the same in New York City and parts of Chicago. The task itself is herculean and the expenses astronomical.
     Since the 2014 explosion, the natural gas provider in NYC, Con Ed, has a fleet of trucks that are out detecting leaks. Each address in the city will have one of these trucks pass by twice a month. This is an expensive venture in itself but only a stop gap activity at best.
      Consider the Chicago example. Peoples Gas is in the midst of a project to replace the aging piping in the city. The project is slated to last until 2030 and they have already been working on it for several years. In true Chicago fashion, the cost of the project has risen over the years and the latest estimate I saw was $7 Billion. I recall reading they have already set and blown past three cost estimates. These costs are slowly being passed along to the consumers who are seeing the natural gas utility bills double if not more. Is this the price we will face to solve this issue?

chicagobusiness.com

     The offices for the School of Business and Nonprofit Management are in a two-story house on Spaulding in Northeast Chicago. In the summer of 2017, Peoples Gas came to our street to redo the natural gas pipes. They were there like two months and ripped up the street and the sidewalks as you would expect they would have to replace the pipes. As an operations guy, I was not exactly impressed with their process but there was not a lot of options available. They had to repave parts of our street twice. Seeing it first hand on just one block, I got a sense for the long-time line and huge costs for this project.
     I fear will see more incidents like we saw this week in the North Andover and Lawrence moving forward before we decide to act on this problem.