Table 2-50: Hazardous Liquid and Natural Gas Pipeline Safety and Property Damage Data
| 1970 | 1975 | 1980 | 1985 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | (R) 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | (R) 2013 | (R) 2014 | 2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fatalities | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total hazardous liquid | 4 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total gas | 26 | 8 | 15 | 28 | 6 | 14 | 10 | 17 | 21 | 18 | 48 | 10 | 19 | 18 | 37 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 18 | 15 | 21 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 21 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 19 | 10 |
| Gas transmission | U | U | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Gas distribution | U | U | 14 | 22 | 6 | 14 | 7 | 16 | 21 | 16 | 47 | 9 | 18 | 16 | 22 | 5 | 10 | 11 | 18 | 15 | 18 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 18 | 4 |
| Injured persons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total hazardous liquida | 21 | 17 | 15 | 18 | 7 | 9 | 38 | 10 | 1,858 | 11 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 20 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 16 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 4 | (R) 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Total gas | 233 | 214 | 177 | 108 | 69 | 89 | 80 | 100 | 113 | 50 | 114 | 72 | 75 | 88 | 75 | 51 | 48 | 66 | 43 | (R) 43 | 33 | 39 | (R) 54 | 60 | 105 | 54 | 53 | 38 | 95 | 50 |
| Gas transmission | U | U | 13 | 12 | 17 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 22 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 11 | 8 | 16 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 11 | 61 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
| Gas distribution | U | U | 164 | 96 | 52 | 77 | 65 | 84 | 91 | 43 | 109 | 67 | 64 | 80 | 59 | 46 | 44 | 58 | 41 | (R) 38 | 30 | 32 | (R) 49 | 49 | 44 | 53 | 46 | 36 | 94 | 36 |
| Incidents | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total hazardous liquid | 351 | 254 | 246 | 183 | 180 | 216 | 212 | 229 | 245 | 188 | 194 | 171 | 153 | 167 | 146 | 130 | 458 | 434 | 377 | 369 | 354 | 332 | 375 | 342 | 350 | 346 | (R) 366 | 401 | 445 | 453 |
| Total gas | 1,077 | 1,338 | 1,524 | 334 | 199 | 233 | 167 | 214 | 215 | 151 | 186 | 170 | 225 | (R) 166 | 230 | 199 | 175 | 234 | 275 | (R) 328 | 270 | 258 | (R) 266 | (R) 261 | 229 | (R) 238 | 193 | 210 | 244 | 247 |
| Gas transmission | U | U | 389 | 129 | 89 | 71 | 64 | 93 | 74 | 54 | 76 | 68 | 88 | (R) 48 | 76 | 75 | 73 | 93 | 103 | 160 | 130 | 110 | 122 | 105 | 107 | (R) 118 | 103 | 105 | 132 | 143 |
| Gas distribution | U | U | 1,135 | 205 | 110 | 162 | 103 | 121 | 141 | 97 | 110 | 102 | 137 | 118 | 154 | 124 | 102 | 141 | 172 | (R) 168 | 140 | 148 | (R) 144 | (R) 156 | 122 | 120 | 90 | 105 | 112 | 104 |
| Property damage (Millions of current dollar) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total hazardous liquid | 1.2 | 2.2 | 5.7 | 5.1 | 15.7 | 37.8 | 39.1 | 28.9 | 62.2 | 32.5 | 85.1 | 55.2 | 63.3 | 86.4 | 150.6 | 25.3 | 51.6 | 67.4 | 166.0 | 306.5 | 75.1 | 60.4 | 148.3 | 74.2 | (R)1,075.2 | (R) 273.5 | (R) 144.9 | 278.5 | 131.4 | 247.7 |
| Total gas | 3.3 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 22.9 | 19.0 | 19.7 | 30.1 | 38.4 | 97.1 | 20.7 | 29.3 | 24.2 | 60.7 | (R) 41.6 | 40.4 | 27.8 | 49.2 | 69.8 | 73.3 | 796.1 | (R) 65.6 | 87.4 | (R) 294.6 | 87.8 | (R) 615.3 | (R) 151.5 | 80.6 | 68.6 | 127.1 | 80.7 |
| Gas transmission | U | U | 8.8 | 13.4 | 11.3 | 11.9 | 23.3 | 23.0 | 43.9 | 9.7 | 13.1 | 11.7 | 41.6 | (R) 15.7 | 17.0 | 13.7 | 25.4 | 48.8 | 35.8 | 298.1 | 41.1 | 61.6 | 256.0 | 55.9 | (R) 594.0 | (R) 123.7 | 55.0 | 50.1 | 52.3 | 50.7 |
| Gas distribution | U | U | 1.2 | 9.5 | 7.7 | 7.8 | 6.8 | 15.3 | 53.3 | 11.0 | 16.3 | 12.5 | 19.1 | 25.9 | 23.4 | 14.1 | 23.8 | 21.0 | 37.5 | 498.0 | (R) 24.5 | 25.7 | (R) 38.5 | 31.9 | 21.3 | (R) 27.8 | 25.6 | 18.5 | 74.9 | 30.0 |
KEY: R = revised; U = data are not available.
a 1994 total Injured persons from hazardous liquid Includes 1,851 injuries requiring medical treatment reported for accidents caused by severe flooding near Houston, TX, in October 1994.
NOTES
Beginning with 1985 data, pipeline incidents are credited to the year in which they occurred, not the year in which the report was received. Gas numbers represent the sum of transmission and gathering and distribution operators.
Property damage includes, but is not limited to, damage to the operator's facilities and to the property of others; gas lost; restoration of service and relighting; facility repair and replacement; leak locating; right-of-way cleanup; and environmental cleanup and damage.
Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.
Beginning in 2002, only accidents with gross loss greater than or equal to 50 barrels; those involving any fatality or injury; fire/explosion not intentionally set; highly volatile liquid releases with gross loss of 5 or more barrels; or those involving total costs greater than or equal to $50,000 are reported. Due to this change in reporting criteria, accident data for 2002 and later are not comparable with the previous years.
In 2002, one of the more significant of several incident reporting criterion changes occurred. One of PHMSA's reporting criterion for hazardous liquid pipeline incidents (the one based on volume released) was lowered from 50 barrels to 5 gallons, resulting in a significant increase in the number of hazardous liquid incidents reported.
SOURCES
1970-85: U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety, personal communication.
1990-2015: U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety, available at https://hip.phmsa.dot.gov/analyticsSOAP/saw.dll?Portalpages as of May 2016.