Who Is Watching the Fracking Pipelines?

As if worrying about fracking brine dumping, hydro-fracture drilling risks and earthquakes from dumping the brine, now there is something new to consider and worry about: pipeline risks while transporting the fracked natural gas. 


According to the GAO and as covered by the Wall Street Journal article, Audit: Gas lines tied to fracking lack oversight, about 240,000 miles of gathering pipelines carrying gas and oil to processing plants and larger pipelines are largely unregulated. 


According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), only about 24,000 of the 200,000-240,000 miles of gathering pipelines (equaling about 10-12%) are regulated; and, "While incidents involving gathering pipelines regulated by PHMSA have resulted in millions of dollars in property damage in recent years, comparable statistics for federally unregulated gathering pipelines are unknown."  


Thousands of miles of these gathering pipelines were built in response to the need to transport fracked natural gas, and according to the WSJ article, officials in some states do not even know where the new pipelines are, making it impossible to monitor or regulate them for safety issues. 

More Reading About This from the GAO Documents

• Highlights of the GAO Report
• Pipeline Safety: Report to Congressional Requesters

Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion: November 16, 2011

A natural gas pipeline near Glouster in Ohio ruptured and then exploded this morning (11/16/11), around 8:30am. Two homes were damaged and one woman was found walking along the road carrying her dog. As of 1:58pm, no report is available on her, or the dog's, condition.

According to reports, the explosion was felt - and ensuing fire was heard - up to 12 miles away.

The natural gas transmission line is owned by the Houston-based Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company.


The gas flowing through the pipeline has reportedly since been shut off.


Edited at 2:20pm to Add Update about Pipeline Explosion: 


The Athens Messenger has offered an update, stating that no serious injuries resulted from the explosion. Also, the cause of the rupture is as yet unknown. The pictures are pretty "impressive", showing the size of the fire from a landscape view to give an idea of how big it really was.