To comply with the law regarding safe drinking water, public works employees began manually feeding chemicals into the water treatment system.
The fact that it was ignited was inevitable. The tragedy scarred Bellingham, but increased pipeline safety nationwide. — On June 10, 1999, a fuel line ruptured in Bellingham, spilling 277,200 gallons of gas into two creeks and caused an explosion, killing one 18-year-old and two 10-year-old boys. The NTSB cited damage caused in 1994 by IMCO General Construction Company while conducting excavation work at nearby Whatcom Falls Water Treatment Plant, the failure of the Olympic Pipe Line Company to identify or repair the damage, a faulty computer system which failed to respond to repeated indications that pressure was building up inside the pipeline, a faulty pressure relief valve and failure to adequately train its employees. On October 8, 2002, The National Transportation Safety Board, after a three-year investigation, ruled that the Olympic pipeline explosion was caused by a cascading series of events rather than a single catastrophic failure of the fuel pipe. Included in the indictment were three Olympic employees, a vice-president/manager, a supervisor, and the controller at the time of the accident. Bellingham residents were advised to conserve water until all the water pumps were repaired and back on-line. The massive fireball sends a plume of smoke 30,000 feet into the air, visible from Anacortes to Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Fortunately, the fire did not travel west from Interstate-5, and this saved downtown Bellingham. The disaster started at 3:25 PM PDT (22:25 UTC) when an underground gasoline pipeline ruptured due to various errors and malfunctions on the part of Olympic Pipeline and others. BELOW: Carl Weimer, the executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a local non-profit that started as a result of the 1999 Olympic Pipeline explosion in Bellingham.
Annual fees levied against the pipeline operators pay for the program, which costs about $1 million a year. At 4:35 p.m. an Olympic Pipeline field worker who happened to be in the Whatcom Creek area called the company’s command center in Renton, reporting a strong odor of gasoline. One house was completely destroyed.
The rupture allowed 277,000 US gallons (1,050,000 L) of gasoline to escape into the creek bed.Authorities all noted that the destruction and death toll were much lower than would be expected from such a large explosion.
The volatile fuel explodes, killing three youths: Liam Wood, 18, and Wade King and Stephen Tsiorvas, both age 10. At 3:25 p.m. on June 10, 1999, the Olympic Pipe Line Company was pumping gasoline thorough a 16-inch pipeline from a refinery in Ferndale, south to terminals in Seattle and Portland, when a pressure relief valve failed. The Bellingham Fire Department and Police Department immediately began evacuating the area and setting up barricades. Credit: Wikimedia Commons via Worldoflucky On Thursday afternoon, June 10, 1999, a 16-inch fuel line owned by the Olympic Pipe Line Company ruptures in Bellingham, spilling 277,200 gallons of gasoline into Hanna and Whatcom creeks. Authorities were astounded that the damage was so light. The water treatment plant and pump station at Whatcom Falls sustained extensive damage. The resulting pressure surge led to a catastrophic rupture in the line traversing Whatcom Falls Park, and sent 277,200 gallons of highly volatile gasoline into Hanna Creek and Whatcom Creek, which flows through downtown Bellingham into Bellingham Bay. With the thousands and thousands of gallons of fuel that were proceeding down Whatcom Creek, had the ignition not taken place where it did and at the time it did, the damage to this community and the loss of life would have been far greater. Gasoline migrated into the city’s sewer system, and the vapors were at explosive levels for an hour. Washington State Department of Natural Resources crews assisted Bellingham firefighters in extinguishing the remaining fires in Whatcom Falls Park and helped to evaluate the immediate hazards to officials and search teams from burned trees, debris, and fuel vapors. On June 10, 1999, a gasoline pipeline operated by Olympic Pipeline Company exploded in Bellingham, Washington's Whatcom Falls Park.
The indictment charged Olympic Pipe Line, and Equilon Pipeline, which had run the Olympic in 1999, with five felony violations of the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act and two misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act. Further inland, pipeline leaks large and small represent a significant threat to land, wildlife, and watersheds if and when they are not caught on time. On December 11, 2002, Olympic Pipe Line pleaded guilty in U. S. District Court, Seattle, to one felony count under the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act and two Clean Water Act misdemeanors. The water was pink and the fumes overwhelming. The Bellingham Fire Department notified Olympic Pipe Line there was gasoline flowing down Whatcom Creek toward the city. Most of the collateral property damage was caused by explosions, which broke windows in homes and businesses and leveled a house on Valencia Street near the creek. The inferno, estimated to have reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, caused a high-voltage power line and two substations to be shut down, disrupting electrical service to about 58,000 Bellingham customers for several hours.
Abacus Property Group Dividend, Simple Justice Book, Asset Management Recruiting Firms, Amaretto Drink Recipes With Vodka, Athaiya Mamiya Full Movie, Hockey East Women's Playoffs, Ardnamurchan Spirit 2018, Art Farmer Biography, Clocks Luke Faulkner, Luminosity Gaming Fresh, Jhalak Dikhla Jaa Season 6 All Episodes, Air Conditioner Circuit Breaker Size, Choricha Mamla Actress Name, Marty Lacker Wikipedia, The Grifter 2008 Movie, Norco Bank Robbery Location, How Old Is George Clooney, Nour El Sherif Daughter, MV Britannic 1960, Birbal Trilogy Cast, Clear Blue Sky Png, Wiccan Rede Tattoo, DP Status Images, Wings Company Products, Best Abilities For Eric Dickerson, Real Estate Debt Fund Definition, Oh Okay Definition, Types Of Checking In Hockey, Origin Of Word Ski, How Hard Is La-mulana, Luxury Resorts American Samoa, 4 Ton Ac Unit Rheem, Saumya Tandon Son, Kicking Penalty In Hockey, Ghaziabad District Population, Justine Damond What Happened, King Of Cambodia, Fidelity Contrafund Stock Split, Flora Of Taiwan Pdf, Abacus Property Book, Atari Bigby: University Of Jah, Mikita Badziakouski Girlfriend, Camilla Beeput Wiki, Chris Wood He-man, Nadech Kugimiya Speaking English, Knight Armor For Sale, Reference Sheet Processing, Rheem 4 Ton 14 Seer Heat Pump, What Are The Basic Principles Of Progressive Education, Blackheart Clothing Store, Mayavi Jupyter Kernel Died, Aol Abbreviation In Business, Deceit Game Ps4, Amana Packaged Heat Pump Prices, Just9n Net Worth, Catamaran Boats For Sale, Cypriot Food Near Me, Cbsnews Com Live Cbsn Local Bay Area, Egotistical Vs Narcissistic, Culture Trip Mexico, Madhur Bhandarkar Movies, Fiserv Head Office, Algerian President Dead, What Are The Types Of Cultural Tourism, Dominion Payroll Customer Service, Griftlands Patch Notes, Georges Steakhouse Berlin, Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Read Aloud,