Just a year after deadly fires and explosions hit the same area, a gas leak in one of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts' service lines prompted an evacuation of at least 100 people in Lawrence, Mass.
A "level one" gas leak led to the evacuation of nearby residents and the closing of two schools, Lawrence City Mayor Dan Rivera confirmed in a Sept. 27 statement. "City of Lawrence Fire and Police have responded to the gas leak immediately," Rivera said.
In a separate tweet, the NiSource Inc. gas utility said it is responding to the leak and is working with local officials to investigate the leak and carry out the necessary repairs. The utility estimates about 146 meters affected by the leak. Crews are going door to door to check for the presence of gas, Columbia Gas said.
On Sept. 13, 2018, a series of fires and explosions in Lawrence; Andover, Mass.; and North Andover, Mass., killed one person, injured 22, and damaged or destroyed 131 structures. The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, and investigators traced the cause of the event to Columbia Gas neglecting to develop a plan for a critical step of its pipeline replacement project, leaving contractors with a work plan that was likely to trigger a disaster.
The Lawrence Fire Department received a report of a high-pressure gas main leak at approximately 3:15 a.m. ET, Fire Chief Brian Moriarty said during a press conference. Fugitive gas was traveled through sewers, and "explosive range" gas was detected in the area surrounding the intersection at Salem Street and South Broadway, he said.
While the event is being classified as a level one leak, Moriarty said it was "far more serious," noting that the police officer who discovered it reported gas "coming up heavily." During a level one leak, responders must immediately mobilize a crew and fix the problem within 24 hours, he said.
Columbia Gas personnel was on site by 3:29 a.m. ET, and gas flows to the area were shut down by 5:08 a.m. ET, utility President and COO Mark Kempic said during the press conference. The company is bringing in crews from around the state and has suspended all other scheduled work to focus on the situation in Lawrence, he said.
"We are still looking to determine the cause of the situation. We are excavating at that intersection that we previously mentioned. We have provided maps to the fire department showing the location of the area, showing the location of the critical valves that we shut off to isolate this area," Kempic said.
The company will offer an update at 1 p.m. ET, a Columbia Gas spokesman said.
The affected line was installed within the last year as part of the company's restoration project following the Merrimack Valley disaster. Columbia Gas has restored 44 miles of gas mains and installed 5,000 new service lines since the incident, the company reported Sept. 9.
Portions of the restoration project came under scrutiny earlier this month, when Massachusetts regulators ordered the company to implement safety measures and threatened fines over its admission that workers failed to comply with safety requirements when they abandoned service lines in Lawrence and Andover. Columbia Gas is conducting inspections on about abandoned 700 service lines to make sure they were properly disconnected.
The gas leak drew swift criticism from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who noted that the event came on the heels of the NTSB documenting management failures during a more than three hour hearing on Sept. 24.
"Just three days ago, the NTSB released a damning report that drew a direct link between weak engineering management at NiSource and Columbia Gas and last year’s devastating gas explosions," she said in a statement. "Senator Markey, Congresswoman Trahan, and I are fighting harder than ever to pass the Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act to make sure gas companies prioritize the safety of our communities — and we are demanding answers from Columbia Gas and NiSource about why they keep placing our residents and first responders at risk.”
Still, NTSB board members commended NiSource for going above and beyond the recommendations they issued following the disaster and addressing systemic problems within the company that paved the way to the disaster.
Kempic's disclosure during the press conference that Columbia Gas immediately shared maps with first responders was notable because the company came under fire for hampering the response during the 2018 disaster by failing to furnish that information.
