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The report below provides details and incident history for the pipeline systems in the state of Massachusetts.

The incidents reported below are limited to Significant Incidents (A) over the period 1999 to 2008 only. Each year and selected column totals provide links to focused reports showing the causes of the corresponding incidents.

The data sources for this report are the PHMSA Filtered Incident Files (1) (2) (3) and several pipeline mileage data sources as described below.

• Hazardous Liquid - National Pipeline Mapping System (4)
• Gas Transmission - National Pipeline Mapping System (4)
• Gas Gathering - Calendar Year 2008 Annual Reports (5)
• Gas Distribution - Calendar Year 2008 Annual Reports (6)

All mileages are for the year 2008 and are approximate as some data sources may not contain a complete record of state pipeline mileage for the year 2008.

See State Significant Incident Detail Listing for more information about each Significant Incident in Massachusetts

Where appropriate, the table columns can be sorted by clicking the corresponding column header.

Massachusetts Pipeline Safety Regulatory Fact Sheet

More Pipeline Incidents and Mileage Reports are available.

Notes

1. Significant Incidents are those incidents reported by pipeline operators with any of the following conditions are met: 1) fatality or injury requiring in-patient hospitalization. 2) $50,000 or more in total costs, measured in 1984 dollars. 3) highly volatile liquid releases of 5 barrels or more or other liquid releases of 50 barrels or more. 4) liquid releases resulting in an unintentional fire or explosion. Note: Significant Incidents include all Serious Incidents. Unless otherwise noted, any counts of Significant Incidents also include Serious Incidents.
2. Gas Distribution incidents where fire/explosion was the primary cause of failure, such as a house fire that subsequently resulted in - but was not caused by - a distribution line failure are excluded from 2004 onward. This exclusion has not been applied in years prior to 2004 due to difficulty in identifying these types of events with the older report formats.
3. Gas distribution service lines (the connection between the distribution line and the end user) are not included in the Gas distribution mileage. The total number of such services is provided.
4. The costs for incidents prior to 2008 are presented in 2008 dollars. Cost of Gas lost is indexed via the Energy Information Administration, Natural Gas City Gate Prices. All other costs are adjusted via the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Government Printing Office inflation values.
5. For years 2002 and later, property damage is estimated as the sum of all public and private costs reported in the 30-day incident report. For years prior to 2002, accident report forms did not include a breakdown of public and private costs so property damage for these years is the reported total property damage field in the report. All costs prior to 2008 are expressed in 2008 dollars.
6. Net Barrels Lost applies only to Liquid incidents and is the difference between Gross Barrels Spilled and Barrels Recovered.

Sources

1. PHMSA Hazardous Liquid Flagged Incidents File - October 14, 2009
2. PHMSA Gas Transmission Flagged Incidents File - October 14, 2009
3. PHMSA Gas Distribution Flagged Incidents File - October 14, 2009
4. Pipeline transmission mileage derived from the National Pipeline Mapping System - Feb 27, 2009
5. Calendar year 2008 Gas Transmission Annual Report from pipeline operators. - October 19, 2008
6. Calendar year 2008 Gas Distribution Annual Report from pipeline operators. - October 19, 2008

See Pipeline Incidents and Mileage Reports for more pipeline safety reports.