CO2 pipelines are coming. A pipeline safety expert says we’re not ready.

CO2 pipelines are coming. A pipeline safety expert says we’re not ready. 

by Emily Pontecorvo, Grist (April 18, 2022) – The most concerning finding in the new report, according to Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, is that regulations for assessing the potential impacts of a CO2 pipeline rupture were not developed specifically for CO2. “If I had to pick one finding of the report that would keep me up at night as a public safety advocate, it’s that one,” said Caram. The residents of Satartia, Mississippi, learned this the hard way in 2020 when a CO2 pipeline ruptured and a plume of CO2 settled over the town, causing people to feel dizzy, nauseous, and disoriented. Many passed out. Forty-nine people went to the hospital. PHMSA has yet to release an incident report detailing the cause of the rupture. “That incident happened over two years ago,” said Caram. “It’s crazy that communities are being asked to bear the burden of the risk of these pipelines when this report sits unreleased with all these unanswered questions.”