Pipeline Fire at Rockies Express!

 

A bulldozer digging a ditch for the Rockies Express pipeline project hit an existing underground pipeline. A fiery explosion took a worker's life and burned hundreds of acres of land.

 

The incident occurred southwest of Cheyenne when a bulldozer digging a ditch for the $4.4 billion Rockies Express pipeline project hit an existing underground pipeline belonging to El Paso. The pipeline delivers natural gas to customers along the Front Range . The impact severed the pipeline, spilling natural gas and leading to a massive blaze.

 

The bulldozer operator, identified as Bobby Ray Owens Jr., 52, of Louisiana , died in the blast. El Paso immediately shut down 18 miles of the pipeline and rerouted gas to customers via other pipelines in the area.

 

"We don't have an estimated time on repairs," said El Paso spokesman Richard Wheatley in Cheyenne. A spokeswoman for Xcel Energy, one of El Paso 's biggest customers, said its gas delivery won't be impacted by the accident.

 

Federal investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Department of Transportation visited the accident site Saturday evening.

 

Owens worked for Associated Pipe Line Contractors Inc. of Houston, a company hired to work on the Rockies Express pipeline.

 

A plume of fire, several hundred feet high, could be seen from south of Loveland and burned for more than an hour, according to the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Many heard the explosion, and dozens of firefighters, police and rescue personnel from northern Colorado and Wyoming worked to extinguish the blaze.

 

Construction on a 192-mile stretch of the Rockies Express pipeline has been halted for the time being. "We temporarily halted construction so we can start an investigation and review safety procedures with contractors before construction resumes," said Larry Pierce, a spokesman for Kinder Morgan, one of the owners of the Rockies Express pipeline. Pierce said he didn't know how soon construction would resume, but added that it "won't be stalled for weeks and months."

 

Houston-based Kinder Morgan Energy Partners owns a 51 percent stake in the Rockies Express pipeline, while Conoco Phillips, also of Houston, owns 24 percent. The remaining 25 percent belongs to San Diego 's Sempra Pipelines & Storage, a unit of Sempra Energy.

 

The 1,663-mile Rockies Express pipeline will carry gas from energy- rich areas of Colorado to the energy- starved Midwest . It is scheduled to begin partial service by late 2007 and full service by 2009.