Safer Pipes, More Training: Peoples Gas Could Have Saved River West

By: Paul F. CuadrosThe gas explosions that killed four people and destroyed 18 buildings on Jan. 17 in River West might never have happened if Peoples Gas Light and Coke Co. had replaced defective pipes it discovered 13 years ago, The Chicago Reporter has learned.

Two reports commissioned in the late 1970s by Peoples Gas found that seven areas, including West Town and River West, have been plagued by record numbers of gas main breaks and leaks. The mains carry gas underground into a neighborhood, where service lines deliver it to homes.

But had Peoples Gas replaced the defective mains, the utility also might have upgraded River West to a safer delivery system. The regulators that workers were overhauling on Jan. 17 would not have existed. No regulators, no gas surge. And no explosion. Peoples Gas officials disagree with that conclusion. Chief Engineer Patrick J. Doyle said there is no guarantee that River West would have been up-graded even if the pipes were replaced. The utility has replaced about half the defective mains, Doyle said, but he could not say where the work has been done or prove whether it has been done at all.

A 1979 study found that cast iron mains installed in 1924 had a record number of breaks and leaks and were more susceptible to corrosion than any other cast iron main. West Town and River West have a high concentration of these defective mains.

"This pipe weakened much faster than other vintage of pipe," said Chemical Engineer Gene G. Yie, who did the study for Peoples Gas. "They should have been replaced a long time ago."

Peoples Gas rejected Yie's offer to investigate further and instead commissioned another study to develop a repair and replacement program. The second report, completed in 1981, also identified West Town and River West as "hot spots."

But when Peoples Gas launched a 1980 program to upgrade its gas delivery system and to replace cast iron pipe with steel or plastic, the utility did not make the 1924 mains a priority.

"We have to respond to all areas of the city in terms of maintaining our system," Doyle said. "I can't concentrate all my efforts in one area of the city. I'd maintain that the remaining 1924 pipe is not necessarily giving us any more problems than any other vintage," he said.

Tearing up 62 miles of street to replace all the 1924 mains "would not have economically bankrupted Peoples Gas," Yie said. The utility should replace all of the 1924 mains, he added. To do otherwise would be "penny-wise, pound-foolish."

"People would be alive today if it weren't for the negligence of the gas company," said Philip H. Corboy, an attorney representing the family of Stephen Hoenig, who was killed in the explosion.

The Reporter's investigation also found:

• The defective cast iron mains accounted for 15 percent of all gas main breaks that occurred between 1954 and 1978, even though they were only 2 percent of the 3,130 miles of cast iron main.

• Although River West was converted to a safer medium pressure system after the explosion, Peoples Gas still has not converted West Town. A medium pressure system localizes the risk of a gas explosion to one household.

• Peoples Gas workers were unprepared to handle the emergency that led to the explosions in River West, according to March 6 testimony before the National Transportation Safety Board and obtained by the Reporter. And a 1988 Illinois Commerce Commission audit criticized the utility for not having adequate training programs.

• The utility's plan to replace its cast iron mains was based on economic considerations rather than age and safety factors, according to the 1988 ICC audit.

'Winter's Folly'
The winter of 1977 was so cold that while people above ground bundled up against frostbite, frost bit into cast iron gas mains below ground, making them crack, fracture and break like icicles.

There were a record 917 gas main breaks in 1977, compared to just 288 in 1976 and 258 in 1978, Peoples Gas records show.

The breaks prompted the utility to study its aging cast iron mains, which date back to 1854, a year before Peoples Gas was incorporated. This study was the first to recognize the high break rate of 1924 mains, but did not propose a replacement plan.

Peoples Gas then hired Yie, then a chemical engineer at Chicago's Institute for Gas Technology. Yie is currently the president of Fluidyne Corp., an engineering firm in Aubum, Wash.

Yie examined the company's records of leaks and breaks between 1954 and 1978 and chemically analyzed samples of pipe to determine the amount of corrosion, age and breakage history. No other study has ever examined the cast iron system so extensively.

Yie found that the 1924 mains accounted for 1,019 breaks, or 15 percent of the 6,862 breaks that occurred system-wide between 1954 and 1978. The mains may have been cooled faster during their manufacture, making them thinner, Yie theorized.

When a gas main breaks, the gas can travel in air pockets along a service line and into a home. Once inside, the gas can be ignited by even the smallest flame.

In the winter, Yie said that gas breaks occur more frequently and are harder to detect and repair. Frost, age, clay soils, and traffic vibrations can also cause mains to break and leak, Yie found.

Yie divided the city into square miles, recorded the number of breaks in each area and identified the 1924 mains. A three square-mile area of West Town, from Kedzie Avenue east to Halsted Street and from North Avenue south to Chicago Avenue, had 31 0 breaks, or 4.5 percent of all the breaks in the city during the period studied. The area includes the sites of the explosions, near Chicago and Racine avenues. The other troubled areas Yie found are: Montclare, Brighton Park, and parts of Belmont Cragin, the Near West Side, North Lawndale and South Lawndale.

In 1980, Peoples Gas began converting its distribution system from low to medium pressure to increase efficiency and safety. A medium pressure system is safer because it limits potential system failures to one home instead of hundreds. Peoples Gas spokesman Edward P. Joyce said the company replaces its old cast iron mains with steel or plastic when it converts from low to medium pressure. But the company's own maps show that the mains in West Town identified by Yie have not been converted.

Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the Safety Board, confirmed that most of the mains in River West before the accident were cast iron. The board is investigating the Jan. 17 explosions.

"If they knew the area was a problem, they should have converted it," said Sue Weeks, an organizer at St. John's Neighbors of River West. "They should have acted, just like they should have acted with the (freight) tunnels downtown."

Since the explosions, Peoples Gas has converted River West to medium pressure and replaced all the cast iron mains at an estimated cost of $2 million. It did not convert the rest of West Town.

When Yie urged Peoples Gas to let him gather more data about the 1924 mains, the company "stopped the project," Yie said. "They couldn't tell me why."

Yie's research appeared in the March, 1979 newsletter of the Institute of Gas Technology and was circulated among the top managers of gas companies nationwide. "Peoples Gas Chairman (Orval C.) Davis wasn't too happy about it even though Peoples Gas was not mentioned by name," he said. "The chairman complained to the IGT president. The project was discontinued. They didn't want me to dig out any more bad news."

In 1979, Peoples Gas hired Zinder Engineering Inc. to propose a cost-effective replacement plan for the cast iron system.

The Zinder report identified "hot spots"-square-mile areas that had the most gas main breaks and needed replacement. The "hot spot" map matched Yie's analysis. Among Zinder's hottest spots was West Town.

But the Zinder plan also focused on replacing pipe in a way that would save the utility the most money. The company, now called ZEI, Inc., recommended replacing 8.9 million feet of cast iron pipe over the next 50 years. Under the plan, the 1924 mains are not scheduled for replacement until the year 2021.

Doyle said that Peoples Gas only uses Zinder as a guideline. "We do not follow Zinder by rote," he said. "We replace mains of every vintage virtually every year, but our emphasis is on the older mains which the Zinder report has indicated are most problematic."

But a 1988 ICC audit found that the utility does not target the most vulnerable gas mains. Instead, the audit found the utility was replacing pipes when the city tore up streets for improvements. Only 50 of the 90 miles of pipe replaced each year were flagged by Zinder.

In response to the audit, Peoples Gas modified its replacement program to follow Zinder's recommendations more closely.

But when the ICC reviewed the utility last December, it found the company was still neglecting some of its weakest pipes.

Joyce said the utility's conversion program is based on the city's street resurfacing program; customer demand for additional gas; and safety concerns. When asked which are the most important criteria, Joyce said, "I don't know if there's any one. Perhaps the first two."

War Zone
At 3:45 p.m. on Jan. 17, Peoples Gas workers were in an underground vault overhauling two pressure regulators at Erie and Green streets in River West. As the supervisor closed the bypass valve to bring the regulator back on line, the water meters that monitor gas pressure burst.

Eight blocks away, Stephen Hoenig, 19, a sophomore at State University of New York, was having his portrait taken at Alan Bass' photography studio, at 824 N. Racine Ave. Hoenig dreamed of becoming an actor. It was the last time anyone saw him alive.

Hoenig, Bass and make-up artist Victoria Opeka were unaware of the gas surge that was snaking toward them beneath the streets. In a flash, 824 N. Racine was gone. The explosion killed all three instantly.

At 1120 W. Chestnut St., Julie Haran-King and her children were in a downstairs apartment when she knew something was terribly wrong. "I felt the entire building shake. It wasn't five minutes later that we smelled fire and gas," she said. "Thank God. It was a blessing that we were downstairs." Her apartment upstairs exploded.

Back at Erie and Green, the three gas workers quickly attached another regulator and water meters to try to bring the primary regulator back on line. Once again, the meters burst.

The Peoples Gas supervisor knew he had a problem with excessive pressure, but he wasn't sure where it was. In recent testimony before the Safety Board on March 6, he said he did not close the bypass valve that was feeding the fires in River West because he would lose his job if he shut off gas service without permission.

Instead, he left the vault and went to his car to call for assistance. His superior told him to "hold on a minute." While he waited, he could hear fire trucks rolling by.

"It was like a war zone. There were fire trucks and ambulances everywhere," said one woman whose apartment caught fire.

Forty-five minutes after the first warning, the order to shut off the bypass valve finally came down. By this time, however, 18 buildings were ablaze, three people were dead, and dozens of others were injured. One of the injured later died.

Peoples Gas initially blamed the accident on a faulty regulator at Chicago Avenue and North Carpenter Street. The resulting gas surge sent about 20 pounds per square inch of gas into lines that can only withstand up to 10 pounds.

The Safety Board is now investigating whether an error by the maintenance crew at Erie and Green caused the accident.

The maintenance supervisor said he had not been trained to handle that type of emergency, according to testimony obtained by the Reporter.

His testimony confirmed the 1988 ICC audit, which found that Peoples Gas had "no formal technical training programs." The audit suggested the company employed many supervisors "due to the lack of confidence in the ability" of its workers.

But the company still hasn't set training standards, said Michael J. Adams, manager of the ICC's Management Studies Division. "And there are currently no plans," he added. Doyle declined to comment

The ICC has no authority to compel the utility to carry out the audit's recommendations, Adams said. "The commission doesn't have the authority to manage the company." The only recourse for the ICC, he said, is to penalize the company the next time it asks for a rate increase.

The City of Chicago has even less authority over Peoples Gas. "The City Council has very little power in what it can do," said Ald. Edwin Eisendrath (43rd). "In its infinite wisdom, the people of Springfield have decreed the state does a better job regulating utilities."

The city can petition the ICC to conduct an investigation of Peoples Gas, Eisendrath said. But the Daley administration failed to send a representative to the March 6 Safety Board hearings.

"Apparently, no one wound up going from the fire department, and that's that," said mayoral aide Rosanna Marquez.

"The hearings were of a technical nature," Chicago Fire Department spokesman Michael Cosgrove said. "We only desired to get the transcripts."

Peoples Gas overhauls 400 regulators like the one in River West each year, said Gerald Hoppe, chief engineer of the ICC's Public Utility Engineering Division.

Instead of bypassing the regulators, Peoples Gas could have shut down all gas service, he said. But that would have required relighting all the pilot lights, which is costly and time-consuming. The utility also could have tapped the excess pressure and released it into the air. But the utility typically does not use these methods, Hoppe said.

On Feb. 7, Peoples Gas suspended all work on gas pressure regulators in the city, pending reviews of its procedures. The company also announced plans to convert the Southeast and Northwest sides and a portion of Hyde Park to medium pressure because these areas are similar to River West.

On Feb. 26, Cook County State's Attorney Jack O'Malley filed a complaint with the ICC against Peoples Gas, asking the agency to investigate the relationship between the utility's maintenance procedures and the explosions.

In 1983, then-State's Attorney Richard M. Daley joined a case filed by the Labor Coalition on Public Utilities, a utility watchdog group. After five years of paperwork, testimonies and accusations, the ICC refused to take on the investigation.

Today, Peoples Gas offers no explanation for the Jan. 17 accident. But Julie Haran-King and her children are still waiting for one.

In a letter to Mayor Daley, she urged that the utility be held accountable: "We are not unfortunate victims of some unforeseen act of God. This was an act of negligence... taking into consideration the antiquity of the (Peoples Gas) system in River West. There is some rhyme and reason to what happened. There is someone to blame."

Contributing: Paul Caine