Markings are required before drilling takes place so drillers can avoid hitting lines.
By Jamie Landers, Sue Ambrose, Chase Rogers,Staff Writer
An investigative report released Wednesday determined the portion of the gas line that was hit before last month’s deadly explosion in Oak Cliff had not been marked as required before drilling began at the site.
It’s not clear why the struck line was not marked, a step designed to prevent drillers from hitting underground utility lines. The report, issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, is preliminary, and investigators say it could take more than a year to finish its probe into the cause of the disaster.
The finding adds a key detail to a growing fight over responsibility, as residents and relatives of those killed press legal claims accusing Atmos Energy of not repairing repeated leaks, not replacing aging plastic pipe and not properly marking underground gas lines. The gas utility has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing: “Third parties are responsible for the harms alleged in Plaintiffs’ petitions,” lawyers wrote Monday in a court filing.
Dallas Fire-Rescue crews were responding May 28 to a reported gas leak at The Clyde apartments on East Ninth Street near Patton Avenue when the building exploded and caught fire. Three residents — Sylvia Collins, 79; Marisol Pérez, 37; and her 18-month-old son, Erik Pérez Sanchez Jr. — were killed. The NTSB report said at least six others were hurt.
Previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News revealed a third-party contractor, Barba Drilling, had been hired to drill for a soil analysis at the site in preparation for future construction. A request to locate and mark utilities was required before drilling could begin. ECS Southwest, LLP, the engineering consulting firm that hired the driller, submitted that request. ECS said in a statement it could not provide further details during the NTSB investigation. Barba did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
It’s unclear how the NTSB determined the line locations. In a statement, the agency said the investigation “has involved close coordination with all parties involved, including utility companies. Investigative activities have included the review of records, photographs, diagrams, and witness interviews.”
USIC Locating Services, LLC., the locating company that Atmos Energy hired to locate the lines, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the report.
Atmos did not respond to a question about whether it gave the locator a map of the underground lines, but provided a statement in which it said: “USIC is a party to the NTSB investigation. According to the NTSB’s preliminary report, the location of some of the natural gas assets had been marked, but the location of the relevant gas line had not been marked.”
It’s unclear if any of the companies named in the NTSB report had a map of on-site utilities. However, The News previously reported the line was marked on a diagram created more than a decade ago by an engineering firm mapping underground utilities along 9th Street in front of The Clyde. The location on the diagram closely matched the location on the NTSB report. The diagram was on file with the city’s water department.
Robert Hall, a former NTSB pipeline investigations director who now works for Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit pipeline safety watchdog, said marking errors have a range of causes. Those include the use of inaccurate or outdated maps, as well as the methods or equipment used by locators.
One of four legal claims brought by victims or their families alleged the gas line supplying The Clyde was either Poly-1, a polyethylene pipe installed in the early 1970s, or an earlier version of plastic leak-prone pipe. Atmos previously told The News in a statement that the gas line was not Poly-1.
In an incident report filed last week to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Atmos said the service line was installed in 1988.
Hall said the pipe’s 1988 installation does not, on its own, mean it was a factor in the incident. There are utility systems in the country that date back further that remain in use today, he added.
As investigations and litigation continue, a Dallas County judge has ordered Atmos to preserve records connected to the explosion and physical evidence in the area.
Senior Breaking News Reporter
Jamie Landers is the senior breaking news reporter at The Dallas Morning News, where she covers crime, courts and capital punishment. She is a graduate of The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, where she studied journalism and political science. Jamie previously reported for The Arizona Republic and Arizona PBS.
Reporter
Sue Ambrose has worked as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News since 1995. A member of the investigative team since 2008, she has reported on hospital safety, mismanagement at state agencies and misspending of public funds. She began her journalism career covering science.
Public Safety Reporter
Chase Rogers covers the Dallas Police Department, Dallas Fire-Rescue, and broader public safety issues in Dallas. He grew up in Granbury and studied journalism at Texas State University in San Marcos. Before joining The News, he reported for the Austin American-Statesman and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. His work has earned investigative reporting and Freedom of Information awards, including Texas Managing Editor’s Star Reporter of the Year in 2022. He can be reached at 361-239-6527 and on Signal at crogers.95.
