Use of cast iron gas lines is shrinking

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A federal agency that oversees the ongoing replacement of the nation's aging cast or wrought iron pipeline network is posting its results online, so everyone can see the progress.

And the additions to the website of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration or PHSMA drives home the danger those old pipelines can pose using a tragic example from Central Texas.

On January 9th, 2012 , the quiet of a Monday morning in north-central Austin was shattered when a house on Payne Avenue exploded. A cast iron natural gas line, in the ground for as long as 62 years ruptured. The house next door was damaged.

43 year-old Renald Ferrovecchio died in his home. Another person was hurt next door. Neighbors say there was a smell of gas in the air up to two months earlier.

A report produced by the Texas Gas Service said the blast was not its fault and that drought conditions caused a four-inch cast iron pipe that ran between two houses to leak. An ignition source was never found.

That pipe was determined not to be the source of the gas the neighbors smelled the previous November. That incident report is now with the Texas Railroad Commission which oversees the safety of gas lines.

After the blast in January 2012, The Texas Pipeline Service noted in its report, it inspected the 32 miles of cast iron pipeline in its network and found it all to be safe.

Now, a year after that and other devastating blasts around the US, PHMSA is giving the public a first-ever look at its national online inventory of wrought or cast iron pipeline. It's updated every year and shows the progress on the miles of replacement pipe in each state.

Neighbors of the man who died in Austin a year ago say it's reassuring to see some accountability within easy reach.

New mother Tasha Hudson moved to the area two years ago with her husband. When she learned of the PHMSA website she said, “There's something where you can go and say, I know that my pipes are metal and this needs to be addressed. So just the transparency makes it feel better for everyone in the neighborhood.”

In Texas, there are 967 miles of cast iron pipeline. Of that, 841 miles is run by Atmos Energy Corporation . That’s 100 miles less pipe than nearly a decade ago as gas companies are being encouraged to replace aging iron lines with plastic or other metal.  By the end of 2011, 97 percent of natural gas distribution pipelines in the U.S. were made of plastic or steel.

Nationally, Texas has the 11 ^th most cast iron pipeline.

The PHMSA site says 12 percent of all fatalities and 9 percent of all injuries on gas distribution facilities involved cast or wrought iron pipelines. Most cast iron gas leaks are brought on by digging or low water table levels common in a drought.

The Texas Gas Service told KXAN in north-central Austin, it is conducting regularly scheduled maintenance and upgrades of natural gas lines located in the neighborhood. Homeowners there confirm the pipeline on their street was replaced or reinforced after the explosion.

A civil suit was filed by Ferrovecchio’s family members last March, blaming the Texas Gas Company and others for not replacing aging cast iron pipes quickly enough.