September 13, 2018 500 AM
BEAVER COUNTY, PA – A pipeline exploded 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh in Beaver County on the morning of Monday, September 10, damaging power lines, and destroying a house, garages and several vehicles. No injuries were reported.
The pipeline, which had only been online for a week, had not been at full-service, according to an official at (ETP) Energy Transfer Partners – the company that owns the pipeline.
ETP also owns the controversial Trans Pecos Pipeline, a 40-inch, 143-mile-long natural gas transmission line stretching from Pecos County through Brewster County to the Mexican border near the cities of Presidio, Texas and Ojinaga, Mexico. From there, it crosses the Rio Grande and joins an emerging pipeline system destined for the Gulf of California port of Topolobambo, Sinaloa. There the gas is expected to be liquefied and shipped to potential energy users in Asia.
It was the first large hydrocarbon carrier to slice through the delicate Big Bend area environment and prompted concerted opposition by local residents, including direct action by protestors, some who were convicted on criminal misdemeanor trespassing charges.
But it brought to light the need to refine eminent do – main, and the opposition was gently joined by ranchers and landowners, who saw surveyors working for the oil and gas concern come on their private property to site the pipeline, all without public input and permitting.
Witnesses at the scene of Monday’s incident said that the explosion caused the ground to shake and that it had lighted up the sky. By 7am the fire had been extin – guished.
ETP blamed the explosion on a nearby landslide.
