The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has approved (Sept. 28, 2005) a settlement which includes a $15,000 penalty, resolving a pipeline safety investigation into a natural gas pipeline construction-related injury that occurred last year.

The three-member commission approved an agreement between Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and the commission's pipeline safety staff regarding a June 22, 2004 incident in which an employee of Pilchuck Contractors (Pilchuk) was burned and hospitalized while purging gas from a newly installed PSE main.

Pilchuck Contractors was working in Seattle on June 22, 2004 when one of its employees was burned in a newly installed gas main. Because a vent pipe hadn't been installed as required by PSE's operating standards, gas flowed into a ditch. A pipe-fitter jumped into the hole to stop the flow of gas, but the pipe had not been grounded properly. Static electricity ignited the gas, seriously burning the Pilchuck employee.

PSE and the UTC's pipeline safety staff agreed that a PSE operating standard establishing requirements for purging pipeline facilities into and out of service was violated as a result of Pilchuck’s failure to install a vent pipe before beginning the purging operation. This violation, under the proposed settlement, will carry a penalty of $15,000.

As part of this proposed agreement, PSE specifically acknowledges the UTC’s authority to penalize PSE, as operator, for work conducted on its system that does not meet federal natural gas pipeline safety requirements, irrespective of whether the work is performed by PSE or its service provider.

Staff is recommending the proposed settlement because PSE "acknowledges its responsibility as operator for its entire system regardless of the entity performing work on the system" and the penalty is reasonable in light of the gravity of the offense, taking into account the Company’s willingness to acknowledge its responsibility.