Source: http://envfpn.advisen.com, January 20, 2014
Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com
Researchers from Duke and Boston universities said on Thursday that nearly 5,900 leaks from aging natural gas pipelines were found beneath the streets of Washington.
According to Media, the researchers said in a report made public on Thursday that a dozen of the 5,893 leaks found during the survey conducted in January and February 2013 could have posed explosion risks. Some manholes had methane concentrations as high as 500,000 parts per million of natural gas, well above the threshold at which explosions can occur.
Four months after alerting Washington authorities about the dozen leaks, the research team returned and found nine still were discharging dangerous levels of methane.
Robert B. Jackson, a professor of environmental sciences at Duke who led the study said, “Finding the leaks a second time, four months after we first reported them, was really surprising.”
Across the nation, natural gas pipeline failures are responsible for an average of 17 fatalities, 68 injuries, and $133 million in property damage annually, information provided by the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration indicated.  For more information please contact: info@plusmediasolutions.com