Let's Talk About Why Size Matters with Kinder Morgan

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Last Friday (March 6, 2015) around 5:30 p.m. the Merrimack fire department responded to a reported gas leak on Dobson way. Emergency officials said the gas leak was at an empty building under construction right near the Convenient MD Urgent Care building at 2 Dobson Way, near the Merrimack Village Center. The smell of gas alerted those in the area with people as far away as Route 3 and Daniel Webster reporting gas odor.

Officials quickly closed Camp Sergeant Road at Sherwood Lane, forced the evacuation of a neighborhood and shopping plaza in Merrimack, and asked motorists to seek alternate routes.

Natural gas spewed out of the building for hours until officials located the gas shutoff valve made difficult by the snowbanks. Utility crews located the gas valve and eventually shut the gas off around 7 p.m.

According to authorities, the leak was caused by an accident.

The gas pipeline that leaked causing an entire neighborhood and surrounding roads to be closed and/or evacuated was 1 inch in diameter. It was filled with odorized gas which is how people were alerted of the problem. Pictured is a 1 inch pipeline next to a baseball for scale.

The proposed Kinder Morgan gas pipeline is 36 inches in diameter and would carry un-odorized gas. The large orange circle is what a 36 diameter pipe would look like.

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That blue dot near the bottom of the 36 inch diameter circle is the diameter of the 1 inch pipe - baseball for scale.

Perhaps now you can understand why an almost 1000 foot “potential impact radius” (incineration zone) to either side of the Kinder Morgan pipeline exists.

To those supporters of the pipeline who say that a natural gas pipeline incident “will never happen in Merrimack” may I kindly remind you of last Friday when it already did.

Wendy Thomas can be reached at wethomas@gmail.com