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| Underground pipeline |
LETTER: Here is a brief article that I hope you might consider publishing at redmondblog.org, preferably before the Tuesday [and Wednesday night] public input meeting at Rose Hill Junior High. (4/5 and 4/6, 7:00 PM)
According to City of Redmond Ordinance 2136, signed into law in 2002 in the wake of the Bellingham pipeline tragedy, the Rose Hill Junior High acreage may not be a suitable site for any school, modernized or not. The school property is home to the Olympic (now BP/Arco) hazardous fuel pipeline, which runs north to south along its eastern boundary. This defines Rose Hill Junior High as a "high consequence use," which is another way to say that risk of injury and death to quite a few people would be imminent in the event of a pipeline breach.
Consisting of 16" and 20" diameter steel pipes of .281" thickness that lie 30" to 40" underground, the pipeline was built in 1965 -- just three years before the school. It is now 46 years old and has gone through the Nisqually earthquake and possibly other stress-producing events. How safe is it? PSE in 2010 agreed to replace its 1970s-era steel natural gas pipelines after a fatal explosion in a Bellevue residence resulted from gas leakage due to pipe corrosion. The Rose Hill Junior High pipeline, an extension of that fateful Bellingham line, carries diesel, aviation fuel (kerosene) and gasoline at pressures up to 1440 psi. Without physically examining the pipes, there is no way to know how they are holding up.
City of Redmond's stated purpose in enacting this ordinance is to "avoid exposing land uses with high on-site populations that are difficult to evacuate and land uses that serve emergency functions to risk of injury or damage in the event of a pipeline failure." Among other responsibilities, the ordinance charges the city with holding community safety meetings every two years, but none has been offered in the 22 years I have lived in my home, just a few hundred feet from the pipeline. By putting the new school closer to the pipeline and increasing its population from 438 to 900 (plus an additional 80 staff), City of Redmond is ignoring its own law and allowing LWSD to put the lives of countless children and staff at increased risk. Read More >>
