Authorities determined diesel fuel recently found leaking into a storm drain in Lawrenceville, GA was coming from the Kinder Morgan Pipeline. Local residents complained to authorities about a strong gas smell in recent weeks. Five homes have been evacuated due to the around-the-clock excavation and heavy equipment use needed to respond to the spill.
The pipeline transports petroleum products from Louisiana to Virginia. It delivers jet fuel, gas, diesel and biodiesel to Southern states along the way. The cause of the leak is under investigation. Two dents were previously discovered in the pipe near where the leak occurred. However, the company felt they didn’t require immediate action. Authorities believe an estimated 420 gallons of diesel spilled during the weeks that the leak went undetected.
Pipeline Safety Trust is currently lobbying for an update to the leak detection requirements. Bill Caram, Executive Director of the advocacy group, said “While there are federal regulations requiring pipeline operators to have leak detection systems, the rules don’t set standards for how strong or sensitive those systems need to be. It can be tough to pinpoint a leak. In an ideal world, Kinder Morgan would have a really robust leak detection system on this pipeline. They would know very quickly when there was product leaking out of their pipeline, and they could respond to it. In this case, their leak detection system never detected anything. And they had to rely on a resident spotting it.”
Pipeline spill in Lawrenceville — now being cleaned up — first went undetected
