The State : Pipeline Test Advocated

A powerful pipeline explosion that killed two people and injured 31 others in San Bernardino could have been avoided if a routine pressure test had been conducted, a pipeline safety official has told a congressional committee. Richard L. Beam, director of the federal Office of Pipeline Safety, told the subcommittee on investigations and oversight for the House Public Works and Transportation Committee that a pressure test would have revealed the danger. A spokesman for Calnev Pipe Line Co., which owns the pipeline, defended the company’s inspection of the line, which was conducted after a high-speed train derailment in the area. But one panel member said that the governmental regulation of pipelines is so lax that the state fire marshal’s office had no record of the pipeline, which supplies 90% of the gasoline to the city of Las Vegas.