Business, Government Legal News from throughout WVWest Virginia Online Pipeline Safety Information Ranks Low

West Virginia Online Pipeline Safety Information Ranks Low

Updated Nov. 30

West Virginia ranks 16th-worst among states for transparency of pipeline safety information.

The ranking came in a state-by-state study of online pipeline safety information released Nov. 28 by the Pipeline Safety Trust. The study also included, with the states' websites, the website of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Agency.

Pipeline Safety Trust's study comes out as the West Virginia public Service Commission prepares to add new information about pipeline operations in the state to its website, according to spokeswoman Susan Small. 

"Next week we will have a link on the front page of the website to pipeline safety information," Small said of an initiative she said was already in preparation. 

The Pipeline Safety Trust study said 75 percent of states do "an abysmal job" of making information accessible enough that the public, local governments and state legislators can judge pipeline safety and the effectiveness of pipeline regulation.

PST looked for eight pieces of information on each state regulator's website: contact information for agency staff, contact information for pipeline companies, pipeline safety regulations, transmission pipeline maps, incident data, inspection records, enforcement records and excavation damage data.

In West Virginia, it is the Gas Pipeline Safety Section of the Public Service Commission's Engineering Division that enforces the state's pipeline safety regulations and investigates pipeline incidents.

The study scored the PSC's website 0.75 in a scoring system that averaged points in the eight categories ranging from 0 for information that could not be found to 3 for information that was easy to find. 

Contact information for agency staff and access to regulations each scored 3. All other areas scored 0.

Small pointed out that pipeline company contact information actually is on the site, although the ranking did not give credit for it. 

And next week's addition will include links to federal maps showing pipeline locations as well as incident data, she said. 

She did not know if inspection and enforcement reports would be made available online at that time or not. 

The Pipeline Safety Trust ranking of other states' websites ranged from 0 for Alaska, Hawaii and New Jersey to 2.375 for Minnesota and 2.675 for the federal PHMSA. Fourteen states tied with West Virginia's score.

West Virginia experienced several serious pipeline incidents in recent years, as listed in the organization's online databases.

These include two transmission incidents in 2009: a Hampshire Gas Co. equipment malfunction that injured a worker and a Columbia Gas Transmission incident in Kanawha County that resulted in no injuries. On the distribution side, Hope Gas, Inc. had an incident in 2007 in Lewis County in which one person was injured, and a Canaan Valley Gas Co. explosion in 2006 in Tucker County killed four and injured one.

The Pipeline Safety Trust may be found online at www.pstrust.org.

The Public Service Commission of West Virginia may be found at www.psc.state.wv.us.