HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A preliminary report released today by the National Transportation Safety Board identified a possible source of the natural gas leak on February 22nd that destroyed Steffen’s Auto Parts at Avenue E and Main in Hutchinson and forced evacuation of a 40 square block area.
The report said crews from ONE Gas, the parent of Kansas Gas Service, during excavating a 120 feet segment of 10-inch steel natural gas main found a leak at a girth weld, where two pipes are joined by weld among their circumference.
That pipe has since been sent to the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington for evaluation and testing.
At the time of the explosion the main was operating at a pressure of about 55 pounds a square inch, with the maximum permitted operating pressure 58 PSI.
As NTSB’s investigation continues, they will be looking at previous failures and leak history of the pipeline plus other aspects to the ONE Gas integrity management program along with state regulatory overnight, ONE Gas and emergency response training and the company’s leak response, safety managements system program, and isolation planning tool
Damage from the explosion was estimated at $875,000.
The full preliminary report from NTSB can be found here.
