​​​​​Remark​s as Prepared for Delivery

Nelson Mandela once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”

In 2017, I traveled with a U.S. Congressional Delegation to Europe and the Middle East. 

When we landed in Jordan, we drove about 90 miles to the Za’atari refugee camp near Jordan’s border with Syria; it was about six years into the still-ongoing Syrian Civil War. 

Za’atari is the world’s largest camp for Syrian refugees. It is home to around 80,000 people, down from about 120,000 in 2013.

We were there to meet with the United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency, whose mission is focused on protecting people: the rights and well-being of refugees, providing them with lifesaving assistance, like food, water, shelter, and medical care, and building a better future for every person forced to flee. 

While there, a few of us met with two people who fled Syria.

Two people who unknowingly have had a tremendous impact on my life. 

The first was a woman who was teaching other women in the camp how to make and sell soaps and perfume. She was helping other women support themselves and survive. 

The other person I met was an 18-year-old young man who was attending engineering school in Amman, Jordan. 

For some time, we sat at a table across from each other and tried to talk with one another through UN translators. But we weren’t connecting. 

Then, one of the women with us asked if she could practice her Arabic and speak directly with the Syrian woman and young man. 

And when she did, it was like watching a bright light go off. Their eyes widened; huge smiles came across their faces. You could see and feel tremendous joy. 

It changed everything. Whatever barriers existed, dissolved instantly. 

It’s difficult for me to describe, but when I think about my life, about all the beautiful moments I’ve been blessed with, this moment rises to the top.

Then...and only then...did we really learn about life at the camp. 

About how tough it was to live there. How people were caring for children that weren’t their own. 

About the loved ones they left behind in Syria…about those who didn’t survive the journey to Jordan. 

Recall, we had translators with us; our failure to connect at the outset wasn’t necessarily a language barrier problem. The Syrian woman and young man understood us through a translator. 

But we were strangers, from a Western country, sitting across a divide…a table. And we were asking deeply personal questions... questions with painful answers... through a third party. 

Something was lost. Something intangible. 

We had failed to communicate effectively. 

Most importantly, we had failed to connect as people, as human beings. 

Why am I starting with a story that seemingly has nothing to do with pipeline safety?

Because it does. 

As we just saw, this past June marked 25 years since the Olympic Pipeline rupture in Bellingham. 

It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years…25 years since the world lost Liam Wood, Wade King, and Stephen Tsiorvas. 

Unfortunately, Bellingham is just one of many pipeline investigations we’ve completed since we were created in 1967. 

• May 29, 1968, Hapeville, Georgia: A bulldozer working in front of a daycare tears into a gas line. The bulldozer operator can’t find the buried shutoff valve. Within minutes, an explosion occurs, and the ensuing fire engulfs the entire building. Nine people, including seven children, die. Three other children are seriously injured. That explosion and nine others prompted the NTSB to issue a special study on December 30, 1970, of the effects of delay in shutting down failed pipeline systems, in which we called on the Office of Pipeline Safety to develop standards for the rapid shutdown of failed natural gas pipelines.
• ​May 11, 1979, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: A natural gas pipeline ruptures. There’s an explosion; the subsequent fire kills seven and injures 19.
• October 1, 1982, Pine Bluff, Arkansas: A natural gas flash fire severely burns seven workers. 
• July 8, 1986, Mounds View, Minnesota: A pipeline transporting unleaded gasoline ruptures. A mom and her daughter are returning home. The vapor ignites from the vehicle and a fire engulfs the entire neighborhood. Flames soar 30 feet high. Two people are severely burned and later die; one person suffers serious burns covering 99% of her body. 
• November 21, 1996, San Juan, Puerto Rico: A mixed-use commercial building explodes from a propane gas leak. Thirty-three people are killed; 69 are injured.
• December 11, 1998, St. Cloud, Minnesota: Utility workers strike a high-pressure plastic gas service line that explodes, killing four people and injuring 11 others.
• July 7, 1998, South Riding, Virginia: A natural gas explosion and fire destroys a home – the first night the family is staying in it. The wife is killed, the husband is seriously injured, and the two children suffer minor injuries.
• August 19, 2000, Carlsbad, New Mexico: A 30-inch natural gas pipeline ruptures, killing 12 people who were camping under a bridge.
• October 27, 2004, Kingman, Kansas: An anhydrous ammonia pipeline ruptures. Nobody was killed or injured, but the anhydrous ammonia leaks into a creek, causing serious environmental damage and killing more than 25,000 fish, including some from threatened species. 
• November 1, 2007, Carmichael, Mississippi: A pipeline transporting liquid propane ruptures. The resulting gas cloud expands over nearby homes and ignites, creating a large fireball that is heard and seen from miles away. Two people are killed; seven are injured.
• September 9, 2010, San Bruno, California: The rupture produced a crater about 72 feet long by 26 feet wide, and the section of pipe that ruptured, which was about 28 feet long and weighed about 3,000 pounds, was found 100 feet south of the crater. Eight people are killed, many injured, and many more are evacuated. A total of 38 homes are destroyed; another 70 are damaged.
• July 25, 2010, Marshall, Michigan.
• August 10, 2016, Silver Spring, Maryland.
• April 17, 2017, Firestone, Colorado.
• August 2, 2017, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• February 23, 2018, Dallas, Texas.
• September 13, 2018, Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts — my training launch.
• August 1, 2019, Danville, Kentucky.
• August 15, 2021, Coolidge, Arizona.
• January 24, 2024, Jackson, Mississippi.
  

My point: Bellingham is one among many accidents we’ve investigated since we were created in 1967, but there is only one Pipeline Safety Trust fighting to make sure all these tragedies, deaths, and injuries mean something.

Carl Weimer wrote an article on the 5th anniversary called, “Bellingham’s Pipeline Safety Legacy.” I’d like to read a few lines: 

Fortunately for this country, some Bellingham residents, including parents who lost their children in this terrible tragedy, had the foresight to plan for the future. They made their Number 1 priority starting an independent, well-funded organization that would keep pressing for safer pipelines even after many in this community have forgotten what happened here. Their success in obtaining $4 million as an endowment for a Pipeline Safety Trust will ensure that Bellingham’s legacy of pipeline safety advocacy lives on.

What came from Bellingham... and what has come from the hard work of the Pipeline Safety Trust...has been nothing short of extraordinary. 

“From tragedy we draw knowledge for the safety of all.” That was etched in a glass plaque that hung outside our NTSB training center, which closed just a few years ago.

From tragedy we draw knowledge for the safety of all.

Since Bellingham, we’ve done just that — together...

• ​811.
• The National Pipeline Mapping System.
• Operator Qualification.
• Hazardous Liquid Integrity Management.
• Gas Transmission Integrity Management.
• Gas Distribution Integrity Management.
• Excess flow valves.
• Automatic and remote-controlled shut-off valves in new pipelines.
• Control room management.
• Integrity Verification.
• Gas gathering lines.
• Hydrogen pipelines, methane leak detection.
• Creation of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which is mandated to ensure safety is the highest priority.

As a result of the hard work of everyone in this room, countless lives have been saved and will be saved. We can and should celebrate our progress — if.and only if — we remember: These lives should’ve never been taken in the first place. 

And there is so much work still left to be done. There is so much more we can and should do to improve safety.

Which brings me back to my opening story. 

We have a reauthorization bill coming up, and we are at a transition point across the government. 

With that brings new vision, new opportunities and, yes, challenges…no matter who is in charge.

It’s our duty as safety leaders to keep talking with one another… but, more importantly, to connect as people and listen as we face these new opportunities and challenges. 

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head, but if you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”

I’ll wrap up the same way I opened: with a story.

In 2019, I went to my home state of Connecticut to testify in favor of legislation that would require all motorcyclists and their passengers to wear helmets. The Connecticut Motorcycle Riders Association opposed the bill. 

Before the hearing, we were all waiting outside the hearing room on opposite sides of the lobby. I decided to walk over and introduce myself. 

Fast forward to after my testimony: several bikers came up to talk to me. They asked questions about the data I shared. I asked them about their concerns. We listened to one another. 

While the whole reason we were there was to disagree, to testify to why the other side was on the wrong side, we agreed on one fundamental truth: No one wanted to die or be seriously injured on our roads. 

At the end of the day, everyone wants to return home safely to their family. And that core, shared value gave us a place to start to listen, rather than divide into opposition.

These conversations are possible. In fact, they’re necessary. 

We must never lose sight of the fact that we’re on the same side.

I’m not saying we always need to agree. We shouldn’t — it’s not healthy and it’s not realistic. In fact, if we all thought the same way, the death toll would likely be much higher.

But we do want the same thing: zero. 

Zero incidents to add to the list I shared. 

Zero lives lost because of tragedies that could have been prevented. 

We all have different ideas on how to get there and different experiences to bring to the table. No matter your position, opinion, or background, we have to approach this with a spirit of “how can we work together?” 

For Liam. 

For Wade. 

For Stephen. 

For every life lost to pipeline accidents before and since Bellingham.

Thank you.