Source: https://patch.com, October 24, 2019
By: Christopher Huffaker
The Sept. 13, 2018 natural gas line explosions that killed one, injured 22 and damaged 131 structures in the Merrimack Valley were caused by “weak engineering management” on the part of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, a unit of NiSource, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s final report. According to the report, a crucial step in the abandonment of an old cast iron gas line was skipped, resulting in misreadings of gas pressure and thus the release of high pressure gas into a low pressure system, which could not handle the pressure. That step was skipped due to “inadequate planning, documentation and record-keeping,” the investigators found. Read more.