The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced last week thatit was seeking a $3.05 million civil penalty — the largest everproposed for a pipeline operator — against a petroleum productspipeline for an explosion that killed three last June. While thepenalty was huge, some speculated that Olympic Pipe Line’s woeswere far from over.

The civil penalty was assessed against Olympic, which is ownedand operated by Houston-based Equilon, for a series of safetyviolations in connection with the June 1999 pipeline failure inBellingham, WA.

“Tragic events like this pipeline failure must never happenagain,” said Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater. “This civilpenalty is one of a series of actions we have and are taking tohelp protect the people and environment along this pipeline,” whichhas been completely shut down since the explosion. Some questionwhether DOT will ever allow the Olympic to resume service.

Although the explosion involved a petroleum products line,observers in the natural gas industry have been watching eventsclosely because of the fallout they have had on interstate gaspipelines, which critics have targeted as unsafe as well.

While “the penalty itself was significant,” Terry Boss of theInterstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) said he waseven more concerned by the fact that DOT levied the fine before thecause of the accident was officially determined.

Boss pointed out that the Environmental Protection Agency, theNational Transportation Safety Board and the Justice Departmentwere each investigating various aspects of the pipeline failure.This “makes me suspicious” that there might be additional actiontaken against Olympic.

The failure of the Olympic line and the three deaths has led toa number of pipeline safety proposals in Congress and from theClinton administration seeking stricter federal and state oversightof hazardous product lines and natural gas pipelines, stiffer civilpenalties and potential criminal action against violators.

Olympic declined to comment on the DOT penalty given that theaccident still is being investigated by the NTSB and others.However, in a prepared statement, Olympic Pipe Line Vice Presidentand Manager Carl Gast said that “during the past several months,Olympic has worked very hard to comply with all of the safetydirectives issued by the Office of Pipeline Safety, and even now isengaged in a comprehensive internal inspections program of itsentire 400-mile network.”

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