Utility Fined For 2016 Incident After Merrimack Valley Disaster

ANDOVER, MA -- In February 2016, pressure in gas lines operated by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts in Taunton rose to dangerously high levels for nearly a half hour. The over-pressurization was similar to one that would set off a series of deadly explosions on Sept. 13 in the Merrimack Valley and violated federal gas line safety standards. But it was not until November of 2018 that the state's Department of Public Utilities levied a $75,000 fine against Columbia Gas for the Taunton incident.

WBUR, which first reported this story, filed a series of public records requests that included information on the Taunton incident and the previously unreported fine. Those records show that Columbia Gas "has a history of problems with overpressurization," with five separate incidents between 2011 and 2016. DPU reprimands of Columbia Gas for violating over-pressurization standards go back as far as 1999.

The Sept. 13 gas explosions in Andover, North Andover and Lawrence killed one and injured more than two dozen others. The explosions damaged or destroyed more than 130 buildings and left thousands of Merrimack Valley residents without heat and hot water for weeks and, in many cases, months.

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Top: The house on Chickering Road in Lawrence where 18-year-old Leonel Rondon was killed on Sept. 13. Rondon was sitting in the car parked in the driveway when a gas explosion destroyed the house and toppled the chimney onto the car. Photo by Dave Copeland/Patch.