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Comment by aphextron | Hacker News Reader

Do a google search for "columbia gas" before today. There's page after page of people being killed and injured in small scale explosions, and reporting severe leaks.

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1920&bih=953&tbs=cdr%3A1%2...

Is this normal for other gas utilities?

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> Is this normal for other gas utilities?

I've never heard of "mini gas leaks" that are supposed to be fine until I've seen this thread. Every gas leak that's reported here must be fixed. Gas-related explosions still happen, I'd say it's 50:50 people messing with gas piping and people attempting suicide.

I did a project on this some time ago. Columbia gas was one of the worst offenders for sheer volume of leaks. Not only is it normal to leave leaks unfixed, frequently they disappear from the public record without any recorded nearby fixes.

It'd be interesting to see whether there's a correlation between explosion and leak location.

Github: https://github.com/RogerTangos/LostLeaks/tree/master/data

Overview (just for the Boston Area. I didn't do the analysis for Columbia gas.) http://lostleaks.csail.mit.edu

I'm happy to lend a hand for the Columbia 2016-17, and 2017-18 data if others want to join in.

Interesting, what motivated you to do this project?

Some news sites would probably interested in this website/project at the moment...

I'm in Michigan, with DTE Energy gas service. I had an experience a decade ago where they came to the door and informed me that the line needed to be replaced due to a leak. That made me pretty worried, but their nonchalant attitude seemed to indicate that it wasn't a big deal. Turns out (if I understood and remember it properly) that it was a small leak that was known about for some time—it was probably detected by a vehicle that drives around with sensors mapping out leaks.

Both that house and the one I own now are over 100 years old. The water, sewer, and gas lines are, AFAIK, original.

They are subsidiary of NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) a huge publicly traded utility. First time I've ever heard of something of this scale that I can remember. Gas explosions aren't unheard of but so many in a small area is perhaps unprecedented.

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