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Toledo Blade Special Report - A buried web of perils
Pipelines link nation and are largely unnoticed -- until someone dies
Toledo Blade
Sunday, March 24, 2002
- Since 1984, there have been 5,700 pipeline accidents resulting in more than 420 deaths and 1,500 injuries.
- The federal Office of Pipeline Safety, an obscure division of the U.S. Department of Transportation that oversees the Alaskan pipeline and major transmission lines, does not know exactly where all the pipelines are located. The OPS had only 56 inspectors to carry out its mandate last year - roughly one inspector for every 50,000 miles of pipeline.
- Texas, a major supplier of oil and natural gas with a huge network of underground pipelines, leads the nation in pipeline accidents with 1,654 from 1984 to 1999. Ohio and New York tied for eighth with 145 accidents each. Michigan was 11th with 132 accidents.
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