Pipeline Company has Major Explosion

MONT BELVIEU, Enterprise Products is one of the biggest players in the plastics and natural gas business in the world and is a previous applicant in League City to build a pipeline pressurization station on their natural gasoline pipeline near Tuscan Lakes.

In an effort to push more natural gasoline through their pipeline that traverses league city the company claimed they needed a pumping station located near Tuscan Lakes. Their application and request to rezone the proposed site from residential zoning to industrial zoning classification for the pressurization plant was previously denied by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Their Mont Belvieu plant was the site of today's explosion. That plant was the focus of a major expansion four years ago, when the company increased the volume of propylene piped from facilities in Texas City and Beaumont. Large upgrades were effected to the Mont Belvieu plant to increase how much of the chemical it could process for use in plastics manufacturing, detergents and pharmaceuticals. However, Enterprise’s far-reaching and expanding pipeline operations have not been free of serious safety problems. On a Monday afternoon in June of 2010, a utility crew was drilling a hole for an electrical tower in a field southwest of Dallas when, unbeknownst to them, they struck a three-foot-wide gas pipeline buried underground and operated by Enterprise Products. The rupture caused a massive explosion, killing one worker and injuring eight. State investigators faulted Enterprise for allegedly failing to put safety markings to warn of the underground pipeline. At the time, Enterprise Products was quoted as saying it had a "comprehensive training program" and an "ongoing commitment to safety." The company said they would consider making improvements in the wake of the fatal accident. A $120,000 fine is pending against Enterprise.