Pipeline safety bill introduced in Congress in honor of Massachusetts explosion victim

Legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate and House is seeking to make gas pipeline safer by closing regulatory loopholes and increasing safety standards.

The Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act is named after the 18-year-old student who lost his life as a result of the pipeline explosion in Lawrence, Mass., and surrounding communities on Sept. 13, 2018. Gas pipelines going into 40 homes in the area exploded. Rondon was in his car when part of the chimneys from one of the houses landed on his car and killed him.

“Our family is honored that this law will be named after Leonel,” said the Rondon family. “All of us must make sure that we remain safe and that this type of tragedy can never happen again.”

The Senate bill is sponsored by Sens. Edward Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). It directs the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to establish regulations that would improve gas pipeline operators’ risk management plans, improve emergency response coordination with the public and first responders, institute best industry practices for holistic safety management, and mandate use of accurate and reliable maps and records.

The bill would also require the use of professional engineers to approve significant system changes and on-site monitoring of pressure regulation stations so that qualified employees could quickly shut off gas flow in the event of an emergency. These regulation stations would have additional safety features to help avoid dangerous over-pressurizations, like the one that caused the Merrimack Valley disaster. Additionally, the bill would raise civil penalty limits to deter this from happening again.

“We owe it to the Rondon family, the residents of Merrimack Valley, and all of the American people to put in place requirements to ensure that no natural gas company is allowed to shortchange safety ever again,” Markey said. “Without strengthening safety regulations, America’s natural gas pipeline infrastructure remains a ticking time bomb. We need to close the regulatory safety holes that exist by taking the lessons from this tragedy and turning them into laws so that we protect all communities in the Commonwealth and across the country from the sort of system-wide failures we saw during the Merrimack Valley disaster. The Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act will end the pipeline safety status quo by closing regulatory loopholes and increasing safety standards. I thank Senator Warren for her partnership on this investigation, and Representatives Trahan and Moulton for their leadership on this issue.”

A companion bill is being introduced in the House by Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA).

“Leonel Rondon was a student celebrating his new driver’s license the day of last September’s gas explosions across the Merrimack Valley,” Trahan said. “A house exploded, causing a piece of chimney to collapse onto the car he was in, killing him. His sister, Lucianny, testified at a Senate field hearing right here in Lawrence last November. She said ‘we hope there will be justice for [Leonel] and the community. Nobody should ever have to go through what my family has gone through ever again.’ She is right. Congress must act based on the lessons we have learned from this tragedy. I am proud to stand with Senator Markey today to unveil new legislation to help make sure that no other community across the country has to go through what Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover went through last year.”