A new natural-gas leak was discovered in the Boston area Saturday, just two days after a series of pipeline explosions killed one person, injured more than 25 and prompted Massachusetts to declare a state of emergency.
The latest leak was confirmed just before 11 a.m. local time, and firefighters were preventing people from walking in the area, the CBS television affiliate reported. Eversource Energy said the breach was unrelated to the recovery and restoration work it was appointed to carry out by Gov. Charlie Baker.
Baker's selection of the New England utility was a rebuke to NiSource Inc., which owns the pipeline system that had the failures and was criticized by Baker for an inadequate response to the Thursday blasts.
"We heard one thing, and something else happened," Baker said during a media briefing. Declaring a state of emergency gave the state authority to decide who would oversee the response, he said.
NiSource spokesman Ken Stammen said he couldn't provide any details on Saturday's leak. During a Saturday afternoon media briefing, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said a pressure surge on the pipelines preceded the blasts, confirming earlier accounts by authorities.
Steve Bryant, president of NiSource's Columbia Gas unit, apologized for Thursday's incident, saying it was "the sort of thing that a gas distribution company hopes never happens." He rejected Baker's accusation that the company didn't respond quickly enough.
"There's no one else who could have acted on this more rapidly than we did," Bryant said.
NiSource lost 12 percent of its value on Friday, its deepest plunge in 16 years.
Columbia Gas has had seven violations totaling $100,000 since 2010, according to an email from Peter Lorenz, communications director for Massachusetts' energy and environmental agency. The violations included inadequate gas standards, improper pressure testing and failing to follow procedures and federal pipeline safety regulations.
The blasts occurred Thursday afternoon in the towns of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover. The Massachusetts State Police reported 39 incidents.
Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera blasted Columbia Gas' response in a news conference Friday, saying the company was the "last to act" and accused the company of not wanting to "foot the bill."
Leonel Rondon, an 18-year-old from Lawrence, died after an explosion sent a chimney crashing into his car, The Associated Press reported. Thirteen people were treated at Lawrence General Hospital for injuries, officials said.
One person remained in critical condition and was transported to a Boston trauma center, officials said. Another was in serious condition, they said.
Columbia Gas said in a statement that crews would visit each of the 8,600 affected customers to shut off gas meters and carry out safety inspections. Bryant said every home would be visited by the end of the weekend. As of 6 a.m. Saturday, crews had shut off 4,536 meters and it is anticipated that all would be shut by the end of the day, Eversource said in a tweet.
Since 2007, units of NiSource have had at least five explosions on pipeline networks, in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Louisiana, according to news reports.
National Grid PLC, which operates the electric utility in the area, was asked to shut power to all of Lawrence, North Andover and pockets of Andover, spokesman Christine Milligan said. The supply cuts were affecting almost 15,000 customers as of Saturday afternoon, National Grid said on its website.
In April, Columbia Gas filed a petition with the state's Department of Public Utilities to increase annual revenue by $24.1 million in part to help the company replace aging infrastructure. All three towns were listed as areas where neighborhood lines would be replaced, the utility said Thursday on its website.
"Replacing leak-prone infrastructure is a leading priority," the utility said in April. "However, it will take a number of years to eliminate the aging pipe from the gas distribution system."
Information for this article was contributed by Brian Eckhouse, Naureen S. Malik, Rita Devlin Marier, Brian K. Sullivan, Elizabeth Wasserman, Mark Chediak, Rick Green and Terrence Dopp of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 09/16/2018