ROCKVILLE —
It was a year ago this week that Gary J. and Sharon L. Earl saw a huge cloud of smoke near their Parke County home, as flames reached as high as 700 feet into the air and were visible for miles.
“It was a horrifying experience. I was just coming home with the grandkids in the back seat. You could see it from Bellmore and even [Indiana] 47,” Sharon Earl said, recalling May 5, 2009.
It was about 4:22 p.m. when a 24-inch natural gas pipeline exploded not far from the Earls’ house, about 3.6 miles northeast of Rockville, releasing about 7.4 million cubic feet of natural gas, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
It caused a section of pipe about 10 feet in length to be blasted out of the ground, leaving a crater. The ensuing fire torched hundreds of trees and 49 homes were temporarily evacuated within a 1-mile radius of the blast.
The PHMSA indicated a possibility of external corrosion in its corrective action order to Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Co., issued May 13, 2009.
The Sunday prior to the explosion, Gary Earl was on a hill in a vehicle with his grandchildren near where the explosion happened. “Just 48 hours prior to the explosion, I was on that hill. I wouldn’t be here today if I was there when it exploded,” he said.
Since that blast, the Earls have documented costs to their restore their property to pre-blast conditions and have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get Eastern Panhandle to cover those costs plus other damages.
Dark, burned trees can be seen along the back end of their property. While they own 200 acres, about 8 acres were engulfed in flames. Those trees now pose a potential danger of falling, especially along a road the couple uses to access a private lake on their property.
In addition, the Earls would often search for mushrooms or ginseng roots among those trees.
“We can’t go in these woods; it’s too dangerous,” said Sharon Earl.
The Earls are seeking to have Panhandle Eastern cut down the burned trees, with new saplings planted in their place.
Another concern comes from large chunks of concrete, used on the original natural gas line from the 1940s, which are strewn across their property. The Earls have spent $12,000 to $15,000 to re-side their house, as siding on the west side melted from the blast, as well as adding rock on a road to access their property.
In addition, the trees that burned had been placed in a state timber management plan. The trees were to be maintained for a future timber harvest.
“We will never see a dime of profit off the trees that were burnt,” Gary Earl said. “That was part of the program that makes the land work for you. That was part of our retirement program.”
Gary Earl said he was more than accommodating in allowing Panhandle Eastern access to repair the damaged line shortly after last year’s explosion.
“They led us to believe they would repair all of this, but once the gas was flowing again, they said it was too rainy and then three days later, they took everything out,” he said.
Panhandle Eastern, in a Nov. 18, 2009, letter, declined to accept an offer for settlement from the Earls and offered to go to a non-binding mediation. The Earls say they have an original right-of-way agreement from the 1930s, which calls for a binding mediation, with each side showing costs. If an agreement is not reached, a third party, selected by both the landowner and company, makes a final decision.
It was in such a meeting that Sharon Earl said the gas company’s attorney simply ended the session and walked out.
“Our attorney was outgunned,” Sharon said. “We are hiring a different attorney. We are pursuing it.” The Earls meet with the new attorney in early June.
“They are bullies, that is how I see it,” Sharon Earl said. “We don’t need their money to live. It is just making right what they have destroyed and abiding by an agreement they made” in the original right-of-way agreement.
In addition, the Earls said they have notified the gas company of another potential problem, a spot about 350 feet from their home where land has subsided next to what is called the “400 line.” The company has since put up an orange-colored fence around that spot.
John Barnett, spokesman for Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Co., said he could not specifically comment on any action involving the Earls as they “have their own legal counsel. We have tried to be a good neighbor since the pipeline was built in that area and work with all of the neighbors to resolve any conflict,” Barnett said.
Barnett said the pipeline was reopened on May 26, 2009, initially at a 20 percent reduction in pressure as required by the PHMSA.
“The line is now in service operating at a 10 percent reduction in pressure, at 90 percent of our operating pressure as we continue to work with the PHMSA, which oversees that,” Barnett said.
“We replaced a lot of pipeline in that area. We replaced 634 feet of pipe, which included the damaged section,” Barnett said.
On the 400 line, Barnett said, “There is nothing wrong with the 400 line. There is some subsidence in that area and that is why we put the safety fencing up, to try to block it off so that somebody didn’t accidentally drive some machinery, a tractor or a car over that and cause some problems.
“We did have a geophysics firm into look at that site and they are currently evaluating it. They took all sorts of measurements and they will propose whatever remediation measure they feel is appropriate,” Barnett said.
The Earls said they are accustomed to having pipelines cross through their land, which has been in Gary Earl’s family for three generations. The property now has five natural gas lines that cut through their property.
“We understand that it is part of living in the United States to have utilities and we understand the risk, but the obligation and legal responsibility is to make us whole again. We’re the injured party here. It’s sad. It makes you disillusioned about how you think things are done, which should be the right, moral, ethical way,” Sharon Earl said.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com
News
Related Photos
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Charred: Gary Earl look over the area where a gas line explosion burned last year. He's waiting for a settlement to remove the burned trees from is property in rural Parke County.
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Scorched earth: Photographs taken by Gary Earl after last year's pipeline explosion and fire.
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Burned: Gary Earl surveys the site of a pipeline gas explosion on his Parke County property. He's still waiting for a settlement so he can remove the charred trees from his land.
Discussion
Parke couple feeling burned by pipeline company
Year after gas explosion, Earls are still waiting for settlement
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