Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 29, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 A 2 WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2015 winnipegfreepress. com GET APPROVED! CrownCredit. ca 204- 275- 4438 Call toll free 1- 877- 346- 8082 BANKS ARE READY OVER INVOICE N I S S A N CrownNissan. ca SPECIAL PRICE REDUCTION INCENTIVES INCREDIBLE SALE LIKE NEVER BEFORE PLUS $ 3,000 OVER BLACK BOOK FOR YOUR TRADE- IN UP TO CALLTODAY! 204- 269- 4685 1.8 SL model shown HURRY! ENDS JULY 31 ST ! Arts & Life C 1 Business B 7 Canada / world A 5, B 6 Classified D 8 Comics C 6 Diversions C 7 Editorials A 6 Horoscope C 4 Jumble D 7 Letters to the Editor A 6 Miss Lonelyhearts C 4 Movies C 2 Sports D 1 TV C 4 Weather B 6 . OBITUARIES D 6 Lottery numbers were not available at press time due to a change in policy by Western Canada Lottery Corp. to extend lotto- ticket sales by 90 minutes. 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Advertising@ freepress. mb. ca EDITORIAL Newsroom 204- 697- 7301 News tip 204- 697- 7292 Fax 204- 697- 7412 Photo desk 204- 697- 7304 Sports desk 204- 697- 7285 Business news 204- 697- 7301 PHOTO REPRINTS - 204- 697- 7063 City desk / City. desk@ freepress. mb. ca Letters to the editor / Letters@ freepress. mb. ca WATCH: Tornado terrorizes western Manitoba TODAY ON . com READER SERVICE / GENERAL INQUIRIES 204- 697- 7000 T HE explosion of a gas line that knocked out power for 3,600 people for five days in 2014 was caused by a crack that had been in the pipeline since its construction, the Transportation Safety Board has found. The safety board said Tuesday the crack on Line 400- 1 caused a massive explosion Jan. 25, 2014 at about 1 a. m. when the pipe fractured and ruptured. The incident occurred at a valve station on TransCanada Pipelines Emerson Lateral line where the ruptured pipe caught fire and two other pipes were damaged. The ensuing fireball knocked out power for customers in Ritchot, Tache, De Salaberry and other southeastern municipalities amid temperatures that dipped to - 40 C with the wind chill. The explosion and fire left behind a 30- metre crater. No injuries were reported but five homes were evacuated in the area, located about 50 kilometres south of Winnipeg. The safety board said the pre- existing crack was " likely due to an inadequate welding procedure and poor welding quality" at the time of construction in the early 1960s. These days, safeguard procedures are in place as every weld on a pipeline is inspected by radiography. " Radiography is like an X- ray. At the time when the pipeline was constructed, the regulations in effect at that time did not require all the welds to be X- rayed. These regulations evolve over time and ( with) things that people learn, including what we find from accidents," said Manuel Kotchounian, a safety board senior pipeline investigator. " For over 30 years, there has been requirements to X- ray every weld on pipelines. X- ray or other means of detecting ( problems) such as ultrasonic wave. There is the requirement to perform what we call non- destructive testing on every weld so this type of defect would not currently make its way into a finished product." The investigation discovered the fracture was caused by stress building up on the pipeline. A statement said " incremental stresses" on the pipe in that area were likely due to a combination of things: weakened soil support from years of maintenance activities, record low temperatures, work that had been recently done around the valve site that may have driven frost deeper into the ground, and thermal contraction that may have occurred when the pipeline cooled due to the absence of gas flow for 20 days before the rupture. The Otterburne incident was deemed unusual because it took place at a valve station, where the flow of gas can be controlled. " We haven't seen an instance like this at a valve site for a very, very long time," Karl Johansson, TransCanada's executive vice- president and the head of its natural- gas division, told the Free Press after the incident. The first line to explode, a 76- centimetre- wide pipe, was built in 1960. Johansson had said the pipe gets inspected from the outside every year, both visually; through aerial images and chemically; with methanesniffing equipment. That line had been inspected from the inside in 2009 and no problems were found. Internal inspections are conducted by deploying devices known as " smart pigs" into the lines. The machines use electrical sensors and sound waves to discover defects ranging from disbonded outer coating - a layer of tar or asphalt that protects the pipe from corrosion - to cracks in the pipe. Kotchounian said the investigation, 18 months in duration, took longer than the usual 12 months to complete because of the number of large accidents the safety board had to deal with in that time period, including the deadly Lac- M�gantic rail disaster in Quebec that killed 47 people in July 2013. - with files from Bartley Kives and The Canadian Press ashley. prest@ freepress. mb. ca Crack in pipeline caused fireball Pipeline peril 1. Rapid City, July 29, 1995 A TransCanada Pipelines gas line ruptured and caught fire near Rapid City, north of Brandon. An adjacent gas pipe also ruptured and caught fire, damaging a third line. The incident left a 51- metre crater that was five metres deep. One TransCanada employee suffered minor cuts and bruises. The investigation found the first rupture was caused by stress corrosion cracking, the slow growth of small cracks in an environment capable of corroding a pipe. The second rupture was partly the result of a delay in shutting down the flow of gas to the first pipe. 2. St. Norbert, April 15, 1996 At a spot where a TransCanada gas pipeline crosses the La Salle River, gas escaped from a crack in the pipe, caught fire and an explosion destroyed a nearby home. The explosion also left a 13.5- metre- wide crater on the bottom of the river and damaged hydro lines and trees on both sides of the river. No one was injured. The investigation found " environmental- assisted cracking" to be the cause. A shift in the river slope led the pipe to move and stress out a crack in the pipe that may have been present since the pipeline was laid in 1962. 3. Brookdale, April 14, 2002 A TransCanada gas line ruptured, exploded and caught fire two kilometres west of the village of Brookdale, northeast of Brandon. The explosion created two craters - one at each end of the ruptured section of pipe - and burned for nearly four hours. Homes in a four- kilometre radius were evacuated, but there were no injuries. The investigation found that, similar to the Rapid City blast, stress- corrosion cracking caused the explosion. It was unusual in this case as the affected pipe was coated with asphalt and buried in non- corrosive soil. It was discovered the combination of the pipe's coating separating from the surface, a fluctuating water table, the presence of anaerobic bacteria and other factors all combined to create a corrosive environment. Otterburne explosion in 2014 investigated by safety board By Ashley Prest JORDAN MCRAE PHOTO The explosion of the natural gas pipeline lit up the sky near Otterburne on Jan. 25, 2014. TACOMA, Wash. - A fugitive has been arrested after U. S. federal agents saw his photo in a Washington state newspaper that ran a story about a low- budget horror movie. The News Tribune reports 44- year- old Jason Stange, a convicted bank robber, plays a leading role in the movie, Marla Mae. The Olympian newspaper ran a feature story on the film Friday with photos that showed Stange on the film set in Olympia. Federal agents tracked down Stange and arrested him Friday at a restaurant close to the filming location. Stange pleaded guilty to an armed bank robbery in 2006 and was given a 117- month prison sentence. A federal probation violation warrant was issued last year after Stange left a halfway house in Spokane. The film's producer says Stange will remain in the film, which is scheduled for release in 2016. - The Associated Press Publicity backfires on fugitive starring in horror film A_ 02_ Jul- 29- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A2 7/ 28/ 15 9: 59: 08 PM ;