Inspect underground natural gas storage facilities
Laws are best assessed on their own, and passed on their own merits. But public safety justifies the procedural gambit sought by Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran to ensure that inspections of Kansas’ underground natural gas storage facilities finally resume – attaching the measure to a must-pass bill.
It’s been 14 1/2 years since natural gas that had leaked from an underground storage field at Yaggy migrated and caused a series of explosions, destroying half a block of downtown Hutchinson, killing an elderly couple in a mobile home and necessitating a mass evacuation. It took more than a month to burn off the remaining gas.
Such a tragedy should have guaranteed frequent safety checks and other oversight for the long term. To its credit, the Legislature passed tough, updated regulations in response, taking responsibility for the safety of Kansans.
But a federal court struck down the law in 2010, saying state agencies lacked the authority to regulate underground storage of hazardous gases and liquids.
Enter the federal regulators, right? Except that didn’t happen either, and the sites have gone without inspections for five years. Talk about playing with fire.
If the feds won’t do it, the least Congress can do is give Kansas the undisputed authority to be the watchdog over these facilities.
Kansas Sens. Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts tried in 2011 and 2013 to get Congress to act. The senators now plan another effort this month, by tying the legislation to the reauthorization of the Pipeline Safety Act (set to expire Sept. 30) or another must-pass bill.
As Republicans, Roberts and Moran aren’t known as champions of regulation. Neither is Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, who also has called for federal action. They all understand the necessity and the urgency when it comes to safety checks of Kansas’ 18 underground storage reservoirs, which have a capacity of 284 billion cubic feet of gas.
“We need strong oversight in the storage of natural gas reserves, and in the absence of federal leadership, the state must be allowed to step up and protect its people,” Roberts said.
“That bill is important, noncontroversial and it just needs to get done,” Moran said. “We need to redouble our efforts to get it accomplished.”
It’s worth noting that a state agency intern had inspected the Yaggy field six months before the Hutchinson explosions. If inspections aren’t infallible, though, there is no doubt that further delaying their resumption will put Kansans further at risk.
Then, once Kansas is empowered to oversee the safety of these underground natural gas storage facilities, state leaders will need to make sure the system has the inspectors, funding and other resources to do the job.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
This story was originally published September 8, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Inspect underground natural gas storage facilities."