News coming out of the Brecon Beacons about the damage caused to key protected areas in the Park will come as no surprise to those of us elsewhere along the pipeline route already well acquainted with National Grid's desperate rush to "complete" the pipeline at all costs.
Nor will it surprise people in parts of Scotland either.
In 2003, Transco's contractor Nacap Lawrence was fined £30,000 by SEPA - the Scottish Environment Agency - for silt pollution caused in the River Ythan in North-East Scotland during another pipeline project to connect a gas terminal at Aberdeen.
Seems like Nacap have acquired a very bad habit of doing this kind of thing...
Indeed, in Brecon the problem has become so bad that large areas of topsoil along the pipeline route are quite literally washing away into important rivers like the Towy, Crai and Usk - some of which are protected under the EU Habitats Directive.
The Park's fundamental concern has always revolved around the fact that the construction timetable for the pipeline was far too tight, and the routing flawed, and that this would ultimately compromise both aftercare and safety in large areas of the Park. And as it turns out, the Park Authority was right.
National Grid, meanwhile, have taken to blaming the crap weather for this huge cock-up. But they were warned...
Back in 2005, when the Grid sensitively decided to route their huge pipe through a newly designated Geopark, concerns were raised by various bodies about the viability of routing a pipeline of this size through a sensitive landscape riddled with fragile habitats, steep slopes and unstable landslips.
This little nugget from the HSE in particular makes clear that dodgy weather was a pressing concern for them too;-
Health and Safety Executive Hazardous Installations Directorate
"Pipeline Integrity
Route 12 would involve substantial hill sections to negotiate, and we agree with the description of the difficulties in constructing and testing a pipeline over sloping / rising ground. We would be somewhat concerned that a pipeline laid in sloping ground in one of the wettest areas of the country could be at risk of failure during operation, as a result of ground movement. The UKOPA Pipeline Loss Database (1962 -2004) reports a total of 172 product loss incidents. Of these, five were caused by ground movement withone of these (an 18-inch diameter pipeline) failing as a full-bore rupture with ignition of gas. This is a significant failure given that only nine of the 172 product loss incidents resulted in ignition."
Route 12 was discarded, but given that route 13 (the route chosen) is fundamentally a very similar route, that may not make a lot of difference.
National Grid have buggered up, and they know it. Not only have they routed the pipeline through a sensitive landscape which has been irreperably damaged, but they have also routed the pipeline through a landscape which is so unstable that it poses an ever-present risk to the integrity of the pipe itself.
Maybe this dim realisation that the routing of the pipeline is fundamentally flawed prompted Project Manager David Mercer to tell Welsh Assembly members at a meeting recently that it was actually Exxon that decided the ultimate route in any case - by deciding to site the Terminals in Milford Haven....
Nor will it surprise people in parts of Scotland either.
In 2003, Transco's contractor Nacap Lawrence was fined £30,000 by SEPA - the Scottish Environment Agency - for silt pollution caused in the River Ythan in North-East Scotland during another pipeline project to connect a gas terminal at Aberdeen.
Seems like Nacap have acquired a very bad habit of doing this kind of thing...
Indeed, in Brecon the problem has become so bad that large areas of topsoil along the pipeline route are quite literally washing away into important rivers like the Towy, Crai and Usk - some of which are protected under the EU Habitats Directive.
The Park's fundamental concern has always revolved around the fact that the construction timetable for the pipeline was far too tight, and the routing flawed, and that this would ultimately compromise both aftercare and safety in large areas of the Park. And as it turns out, the Park Authority was right.
National Grid, meanwhile, have taken to blaming the crap weather for this huge cock-up. But they were warned...
Back in 2005, when the Grid sensitively decided to route their huge pipe through a newly designated Geopark, concerns were raised by various bodies about the viability of routing a pipeline of this size through a sensitive landscape riddled with fragile habitats, steep slopes and unstable landslips.
This little nugget from the HSE in particular makes clear that dodgy weather was a pressing concern for them too;-
Health and Safety Executive Hazardous Installations Directorate
"Pipeline Integrity
Route 12 would involve substantial hill sections to negotiate, and we agree with the description of the difficulties in constructing and testing a pipeline over sloping / rising ground. We would be somewhat concerned that a pipeline laid in sloping ground in one of the wettest areas of the country could be at risk of failure during operation, as a result of ground movement. The UKOPA Pipeline Loss Database (1962 -2004) reports a total of 172 product loss incidents. Of these, five were caused by ground movement withone of these (an 18-inch diameter pipeline) failing as a full-bore rupture with ignition of gas. This is a significant failure given that only nine of the 172 product loss incidents resulted in ignition."
Route 12 was discarded, but given that route 13 (the route chosen) is fundamentally a very similar route, that may not make a lot of difference.
National Grid have buggered up, and they know it. Not only have they routed the pipeline through a sensitive landscape which has been irreperably damaged, but they have also routed the pipeline through a landscape which is so unstable that it poses an ever-present risk to the integrity of the pipe itself.
Maybe this dim realisation that the routing of the pipeline is fundamentally flawed prompted Project Manager David Mercer to tell Welsh Assembly members at a meeting recently that it was actually Exxon that decided the ultimate route in any case - by deciding to site the Terminals in Milford Haven....
