A cross-state gas pipeline rupture on the Arkansas River in Little Rock is being investigated by divers from Spectra-Energy Corp. Both the Company and the Coast Guard were notified of the rupture by the company and of damage to a towboat on Sunday.
John Bethel with the Arkansas Service Commission says there were no injuries and the natural gas was released from an inactive portion of the pipeline that runs underneath the river.
“A segment of the line that was damaged was not in service at the time,” he said. “It was isolated by valves on either side of the river and the gas that did escape from the line was the residual gas that was left in the line,” said Bethel.
Lt. Brian Porter with the Coast Guard in Memphis says no injuries were reported. Porter says the section of the river near the Bill and Hilary Clinton National Airport is closed to traffic and will be re-opened once the pipeline is assessed and water levels recede.
“Once we determine and find the pipe’s location and have it marked as such, we can make the determination whether or not to let traffic through safely.”
Glenn Hooks with the Arkansas Sierra Club says he would like to see the state move away from reliance on fossil fuels and that pipeline ruptures happen too often, not just during extreme weather like flooding.
“This particular pipeline, you know, released somewhere in the neighborhood of four million cubic feet of natural gas into the atmosphere. We’re saying that’s not very much but that’s a gigantic amount of gas that did not need to be released into our atmosphere,” said Hooks.
“It’s going to cause a lot of additional problems, the kind we’re trying to fight when we fight global climate disruption,” he added.
The 2-mile section of the river will be closed indefinitely to commercial and recreational traffic. High water levels had already stopped water traffic in the area.
