Ontario’s pipeline safety regulators have charged Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. and two other companies with negligence in connection with a pipeline explosion last April in Toronto that killed five persons, left several injured and caused extensive property damage.

Both Enbridge Gas Distribution and its agent, Precision Utility Ltd. (PUL), were charged with one count of failing to provide accurate information quickly on the location of an underground gas distribution line, which ruptured and exploded when a construction crew struck it while repairing a nearby road. The deadly blast leveled a small strip mall in Toronto.

Ontario’s Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) also charged the distribution company, a subsidiary of Enbridge Inc. in Calgary, ON, with one count of failing to ensure that PUL complied with the province’s safety regulations. Enbridge subcontracted with PUL to provide information on the location of its pipelines when requested by construction crews or other companies.

The construction company, Warren Bitulithic Ltd., was charged with two counts of digging without first knowing the exact location of the underground gas pipeline and with rupturing the high-pressure pipeline.

The case is scheduled to go before the Ontario Court (Provincial Division) in Toronto on Jan. 14. It will be prosecuted by the TSSA. If the charges are upheld, TSSA regulators have the authority to fine corporate violators up to $1 million for each count.

Enbridge Gas Distribution owns and operates Canada’s largest gas distribution company, providing service to about 1.6 million customers in Quebec and Ontario, as well as in New York State. It distributes approximately 420 Bcf of gas each year.

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