MIDDLETOWN CT Feb 8 2010
Source: Hartford Courant – Possible gaps in safety protocols at the Kleen Energy power plant are at the center of the investigation into Sunday’s blast that killed five and injured 12. It occurred during the always-dangerous process of purging, or cleaning, of the underground, high-pressure natural-gas pipeline that runs about 800 to 1,000 feet through the facility.
Sources familiar with the purging operation and the construction and maintenance of the Kleen Energy pipeline reported these concerns to The Courant:
• That welding operations weren’t entirely halted and other ignition sources may have been present during the purging Sunday morning;
• That the area wasn’t completely cleared of workers and vehicles during the operation;
• Clutter and other safety issues at the site had delayed the purging operation for a short time and caused it to be re-scheduled to Sunday;
• That high-pressure natural gas was used to purge the pipe, as opposed to non-flammable nitrogen, which had been used for other operations at the plant;
• That the fill material covering the pipe was not compacted to a sufficient degree.
Deputy Middletown Fire Marshal Al Santostefano said the investigation — being conducted by multiple city, state, and federal agencies, including the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board — will focus in particular on whether there were other ignition sources present during the purging.
“It’s going to try to determine whether all electricity was shut down as a precaution, workers moved from the area — all of those issues,” Santostefano said. He said he did not yet know what type of gas was used to purge the gas line.
Investigators with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board will be looking closely at whether the purging of natural gas contributed to the explosion.
“Reports indicate that this may have involved gas purging,” said spokesman Daniel Horowitz said. “This is an issue the board is very concerned about.”
The board recently issued safety recommendations concerning purging after investigating the natural-gas explosion in June 2009 at the ConAgra Slim Jim production facility in Garner, N.C., which caused four deaths, three critical life-threatening burn injuries, and other injuries that sent a total of 67 people to the hospital.
Santostefano said authorities believe many of those on the site at the time of the explosion worked for O&G Industries of Torrington, the general contractor building the plant, which was more than 95 percent complete.
In November, O&G paid a $1,000 fine for not meeting standards for recording and reporting occupational injuries and illnesses, according to OSHA records. The violation is in the least serious category of violations, an OSHA spokesman said.
The Middletown explosion is the most serious incident of its type in the country in at least a year, Horowitz said.
William Corvo, a principal partner in the Kleen Energy Project, declined this morning to answer questions about safety protocols or provide details of the purging operation.
“We’re focused now on the human side,” said Corvo, who was the face of the project in Middletown and in Connecticut during the seven-year process to win permits, capacity contracts, and about $1 billion in financing. “We have people who were hurt, people who were killed. We’re worried about the families.
Kleen Energy’s natural-gas line connects to the Algonquin pipeline’s meter station at the base of the power-plant site. The Algonquin line is part of a national gas-transmission system. The utility extended its local line about 1.5 miles and constructed the meter station to accommodate the project, said Algonquin spokeswoman Toni Beck.
“We introduced natural gas to the lateral and to the meter station in November,” said Beck. “Since then, Kleen Energy was taking flows as they commissioned the plant.”
She declined to say how much natural gas the plant was using.
Meanwhile, Congress plans to hold a hearing on the Kleen Energy explosion.
U.S. Reps Rosa DeLauro, John Larson, and Joe Courtney said in a statement this afternoon that they have received a commitment for a hearing from House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller.
They made the request after surveying the blast scene Sunday evening.
Courtney said it was “imperative that we review what went wrong and to make sure that all appropriate measures are put in place to prevent this type of catastrophe from happening again.”
