Columbia Gas plea follows an agreement to pay a $53 million federal fine for blasts and fires north of Boston that killed one man. 

Federal officials call for changes to national pipeline regulations a little more than a year after the September 2018 natural gas explosions and fires north of Boston and just days before another leak hit the area.

Columbia Gas of Massachusetts reached a settlement with the family of an 18-year-old killed in the Sept. 13 gas explosions north of Boston. 

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.

With 95% of gas meters relit as of Dec. 5, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts appears to be on track to meet its self-imposed deadline to restore natural gas service to Massachusetts in the wake of a series of massive gas explosions. 

 The Massachusetts Dept. of Public Utilities selected Dynamic Risk Assessment Systems Inc. to analyze the gas state's entire gas distribution system. 

While 45-miles of natural gas pipeline affected by a Sept. 13 gas explosion will be replaced nearly three weeks early, the restoration of full gas service will be delayed by about a month.

Federal investigators said that the Sept. 13 gas explosion in Massachusetts was the result of too much pressure surging through a pipeline. 

The dust has settled from a methane explosion last month that brought down the roof of a sludge concentration building at the Calumet water reclamation plant on Chicago’s far south side, but there is still uncertainty as to what triggered the blast.