Company knew Pennsylvania pipeline was corroded before April blast, official reveals
Months after a natural gas pipeline explosion that rocked rural Westmoreland County, company officials now admit they knew about corrosion inside the pipe, but didn't expect the problem to progress as quickly as it did.
The revelation came at a public meeting in Salem Township on Tuesday. It was there that a Spectra Energy Corporation pipeline exploded on April 29, leaving a man with burns and 9 families initially displaced. The injured man's home was also destroyed.
While the exact cause of the blast still isn't known, vice president of operations and environmental health and safety with the Houston-based company, Andy Drake, told Salem Township officials and residents on Tuesday that the company had noted corrosion with the pipeline as far back as 2012, but felt it wasn't bad enough to warrant action until 2019.
According to the Associated Press, company officials anticipated the corrosion would grow 2 to 3 percent annually. Instead, it increased at about five times that rate, Drake explained.
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