Sep 29, 2014 3 min read

Imagine if, over the last decade, 135 people were killed and 600 were injured around the country as a result of bombings linked to terrorist groups.

You can rest assured immediate actions would be taken within the halls of government and yet more steps would be instituted to beef up security at schools, airports, shopping malls and any other places where large numbers of people congregate.

That, however, was the toll from fires and explosions sparked by leaking natural gas lines. These distribution lines allow us to heat our homes and fire our ovens and stoves. Most of the time, we can turn up our thermostats or start roasting a turkey without undue concern. But the infrastructure that carries gas to our homes is becoming increasingly decrepit and the response to it has, for the most part, been dilatory.

Last week, the Tribune-Review in Pittsburgh reported Pennsylvanians have more than 10,000 miles of aging, leak-prone natural gas distribution pipes under their feet. Some are close to a century old. At least 20 percent of that pipe was placed underground before 1960, almost twice the national average. Last year, these pipes sprang 31,000 leaks, averaging out to about one every 17 minutes. In Philadelphia, the number of gas leaks exceed the national average eight times over. It’s estimated replacing the whole kaboodle would cost $11 billion.

The human cost of this was borne most heavily in Allentown in 2011, when a whole city block was decimated by a natural gas explosion that killed five people, and in the Allegheny County borough of Plum in 2008 when a house exploded because of a broken natural gas line, killing a 64 year-old man who was babysitting his 4-year-old granddaughter. Fifteen nearby homes were damaged.

“We have a ticking time bomb under most of our cities, especially in the Northeast, where we have older cities,” said Ed Pawlowski, Allentown’s mayor. According to his assessment, something similar to what happened in his community is bound to happen again.

“It’s just a matter of time,” he said.

The cost is indeed considerable, and encompasses more than simply replacing pipes. Streets and sidewalks must be opened up, and police must be hired to control traffic. The Tribune-Review reported, in Pittsburgh, it can cost $1 million to replace one mile of a gas line. Gov. Tom Corbett wondered out loud to the newspaper, “How do we pay for all of that? Replacing (a pipeline) isn’t as nice as building a park or building a bridge, is it?”

So we’re left with the irony that a state that is the epicenter of the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom has a woebegone, tumbledown system of delivering that product into our homes. It’s also another example of how our entire infrastructure, from our roads and bridges to retaining walls and drainage, could use an upgrade. Many reports stated foreign visitors and investors are routinely taken aback by its deterioration.

As it stands, gas companies are not obligated to share information on the location of gas lines with municipal officials, citing security concerns. This needs to change, so first responders can access gas mains in case of accidents.

And though utility companies probably don’t enjoy imposing them and consumers most assuredly don’t enjoy paying them, rate hikes are perhaps inevitable if we want to do more than apply band-aids and cross our fingers that our house won’t be the one that is unexpectedly blown apart.