The inspectors warned for months that the construction crew was burying the pipeline on unstable ground. In at least a dozen reports, they described soupy soil, landslides and failed efforts to contain runoff. But the crew kept working as the problems mounted. The Revolution ethane pipeline had to get built.
In September 2018, just below a neighborhood outside Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, the muddy hillside gave way. The landslide severed the pipe, and the dense gas inside erupted into a roaring inferno.
The blaze incinerated a house. The family inside escaped with just the clothes they were wearing and one of their dogs. Their other pets, a dog and several cats, died in the fire.
Karen Gdula, who lives nearby on Ivy Lane, raced through the neighborhood […]
The article describes the modern state of the American capitalism, which is closer to corporate socialism than anything else. Just like socialist systems it is quite corrupt. As the article states:
“On jobs like Revolution, the inspectors report to the pipeline companies themselves. Regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Transportation and state agencies leave the monitoring of pipeline construction almost exclusively to this network of private inspectors paid by the developers. When inspectors identify safety lapses, it’s often left to the companies themselves to decide when to make fixes, or whether to make fixes at all.”
Ya gotta love a system like this. Easy fix as the article also states:
“The solution isn’t complicated, critics say, just more expensive and politically difficult. Lawmakers need to give regulators more money, more staff and more authority over powerful oil and gas interests.”
And therein lies the rub. Because we have a so called “Two party system” the petrochemical industry has bought both parties, so change becomes stalled. This industry is the cause of many current social ills, some you might not even think would be related to the industry. Let’s just say that those problems, like the hormone disruptors, and PFAS are too hot to talk about and fix.