NEW FRANKLIN: It didn’t take long for New Franklin’s fire chief to know his community was in danger.
The force of the natural gas spewing from the transmission line sounded like a freight train and was creating a combustible cloud overhead as residents slept or were just getting up for another workday.
For fire Chief Steve Leslie, a frightening scenario was playing out on this July morning.
Without detailed maps showing the various pipelines running beneath his feet, all Leslie could do is rely on the State Fire Marshal’s Emergency Response Guide.
The only option was to call for the immediate evacuation of 75 homes and wait.
For some 90 minutes, Leslie and other firefighters did just that.
They monitored dangerous levels of gas in the air and herded residents to safety while workers from Dominion East Ohio Gas toiled to shut off the transmission line. The break in the line roared as some 1,400 pounds of pressure per square inch escaped containment.
Leslie said they got lucky that the rupture was near a field of soybeans and not in a residential area. The flammable cloud drifted harmlessly over the Nimisila Reservoir.
Without detailed maps of such lines, Leslie said, it is hard to safely determine the exact spot of a break and quickly assess the potential danger.
“With the right mixture of natural gas and oxygen, we would definitely be concerned. There could have been definite property damage and possibly a loss of life,” the chief said.
New Franklin is not unique in not knowing what’s beneath their feet.
Fire officials throughout the area are confronted by the same problem of a lack of detailed maps showing pipelines or where tanks are situated that hold byproducts from natural gas wells.
New Franklin officials estimate there are as many as seven or eight major lines under the community with smaller “feeder” lines running from them.
They argue detailed maps of these locations would help safety forces plan for potential disasters.
The requests for the documents have been rebuffed for security reasons, said Mayor Al Bollas.
“I have asked our [Dominion] rep for a map and she said they can’t give that to us because of Homeland Security,” he said. “That is what is so frustrating for mayors, council members and residents.
“We don’t know where the danger is until an accident happens.”
Meeting planned
Dominion representative Tracy Stevens will meet with city officials and concerned residents at 6 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers to answer questions about the rupture.
Stevens said residents should not expect too many details as the investigation into the July 22 incident continues.
Stevens said there’s secrecy about the lines and tanks for a legitimate reason — the information is proprietary and they do not want it to get into the wrong hands.
“After 9/11 we do not give maps of the lines in our areas,” she said.
Stevens said the company will only release general information about its system of pipes and will not even disclose how many might be in a single community.
“We have 1,400 miles of transmission gathering and 1,900 miles of distribution lines that run from the lake [Lake Erie] to the river [Ohio River],” she said.
Tracy Oliver, a spokesperson for Dominion, said the line in question in New Franklin was built in 1957 and is made of steel. The rupture occurred about 400 feet from a self-contained compressor station.
“I can tell you it is an 8-inch line leading to a storage well,” Oliver said.
Dominion workers cut a 25-foot section of the line, just a bit larger than the actual rupture, and sent it to an independent lab to investigate a cause.
The results of the investigation will be sent to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and to Dominion. Any results are not expected for at least two weeks.
New Franklin officials estimate there are many miles of transmission and distribution lines for both natural gas and petroleum under the city. The sandstone under the New Franklin and surrounding communities provides a natural holding tank for the storage of natural gas.
The lines can range from as small as 4 inches to 30 inches. One estimate puts about a third of the community having some type of such a pipe under the lawn.
A leak or rupture of such lines, particularly once on a gasoline transmission line, have caused dangerous situations in the past.
“The last eruption occurred in 1994 or 1995 in a petroleum pipeline that belonged to Marathon Oil when 200,000 gallons of gasoline leaked out of a 12-inch transmission line on the west side of Kungle and Cleveland Massillon roads,” Leslie said.
The property is now a 35-acre “brownfield,” said Mark Kochheiser, New Franklin’s zoning and grants coordinator.
“Marathon bought several homes in the area of the leak and demolished them,” Kochheiser said.
Six large holding tanks now sit inside the fenced-in property at the site marked with “no trespassing” signs that also warn people “photographing or otherwise recording the facility or its operations is prohibited.”
The pipeline running from the facility on city’s west side to its eastern border parallels Center Road — directly behind city hall.
Officials don’t believe the pipeline is currently being used for petroleum transmission, but the city is not privy to that information either, complained Bollas.
“That is what is so frustrating,” Bollas said. “How can our safety forces adequately prepare for incidents caused by breaks in these lines when we don’t know where they are located and we can’t even find out what is in them?”
Kathy Antoniotti can be reached at 330-996-3565 or kantoniotti@thebeaconjournal.com.