PSC gas pipeline safety report: 58 inspections, seven enforcement letters and multiple contractor strikes

At the May 5 Alabama Public Service Commission meeting, Jonathan Kimbrell, director of the Gas Pipeline Safety Division, summarized March pipeline-safety activity: 58 inspections using 119 in‑person inspection days, seven letters of enforcement citing 34 noncompliance items, and eight state-reportable incidents (zero federal reportables).

Kimbrell broke the inspections down by type—13 standard, 17 construction, two operator‑qualification, two integrity‑management, five drug-and-alcohol, and 19 follow-up inspections—and said one operator/contractor training session served 43 personnel from Southern Directional Boring.

Kimbrell recounted specific incidents reported in March: a contractor struck a 2‑inch service line in Huntsville that was repaired on site; two separate meter‑fires reported by Florence Gas where staff concluded the meter did not cause the house fire; a farm‑tap fire initially believed to be homeowner brush burning but later linked to a leak; a Marshall County directional‑boring contractor struck a 10‑inch transmission main that was repaired with a sleeve; an East Central Gas District leak that took more than seven days to locate and required a highway shutdown; and a Montgomery report where first responders evacuated a school until Spire personnel determined buildings were not threatened and made repairs.

Kimbrell said the division issued enforcement letters where warranted and that some noncompliance items were corrected during the month. He urged continued attention to locating utilities before directional boring and to operator reporting practices.

Commissioners did not take separate votes on the report; it was presented for informational purposes.