A federal judge in Lufkin, TX gave a group of landowners the green light to proceed with a lawsuit against Houston-based Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP after finding that federal pipe inspectors and the natural gas pipeline failed to properly respond to complaints alleging a series of safety violations.

In a Dec. 18 order, U.S. District Judge John Hannah Jr. rejected Gulf South Pipeline’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that the landowners’ legal action did not simply target “discrete individual violations” on the part of the pipeline, but rather hinted strongly at a “systematic failure” to maintain and monitor its line, and educate the public about safety issues.

The judge further said the Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), which received notification last April of Gulf South’s alleged violations, failed to “diligently pursue” the landowners’ claims, and take corrective action. “We don’t know what the judge knew about our performance in making this ruling,” said DOT spokesman James Mitchell. The OPS is not a defendant to the lawsuit.

In their lawsuit, the Texas landowners allege that extensive corrosion and other deteriorating conditions exist along the length of Gulf South’s system; that the pipeline is not adequately marked; and that the pipeline has failed to educate landowners and residents about how to deal with pipeline emergencies, among other things. Parts of the pipeline date back at least 50 years.

The landowners contend these alleged violations “are ongoing and have resulted in a continual weakening of the integrity of the pipeline and thus to a constant increase in the threat to them and their property.”

Gulf South pipeline, a unit of Entergy-Koch LP, extends more than 8,000 miles from Texas to Florida, and has the capacity to ship 2.5 Bcf/d.

“We can’t comment on the specifics of the lawsuit,” said the DOT’s Mitchell, but he noted federal inspectors did not see anything on Gulf South’s pipeline to suggest “imminent danger” the last time it was inspected. He could not say when the inspection was conducted.

A key issue “is our ability to inspect everything across hundreds and hundreds of thousand miles of pipelines,” with a limited number of federal inspectors, Mitchell told NGI. He noted that OPS added 26 more inspectors in 2002 to its 90-member inspection staff, and expects to add 15 more in 2003. These are the first new inspectors the agency has received in seven years, he said.

In addition, states will be aiding federal pipeline inspectors in the future, which “multiplies our capabilities.”

Likewise, Gulf South believes the landowner allegations are “seriously flawed,” said spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman. “We don’t believe there is any factual or legal basis for the claim,” she noted, adding the company expects to “prevail” on the merits of the case.

The landowners contend the alleged violations on Gulf South have persisted over a number of years, even when the pipeline was known as Koch Gateway. The pipeline operated as Koch Gateway between 1993 and 2001, at which time it was renamed Gulf South. For many years before it was Koch Gateway — back through at least the 1950’s — the line was called United Gas Pipe Line.

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