Even as natural gas service will be restored by the end of the month to the thousands affected by September’s gas explosions in Massachusetts, safeguards to prevent similar explosions nationwide won’t be coming as quickly.
At a Nov. 26 Congressional field hearing near the Sept. 13 disaster, witnesses called for changes to federal laws, while the federal agency responsible for pipeline safety, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), said the accident was not caused by lack of regulations but by inadequate quality control on behalf of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, which had hired a contractor to install a new plastic distribution main.