Some industry experts have compared Louisiana’s pipeline system to a spider web, and with more than 70,000 miles of pipelines in the state, there is little surprise they crisscross the Teche Area.

 The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, in conjunction with the Office of Pipeline Safety, provide an online National Pipeline Mapping System that shows evidence of how prolific pipelines are in area communities. The public can view the map of pipelines in Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary parishes at www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov.

Louisiana Department of Conservation’s Brent Cambell said in 2004 federal requirements became stricter requiring pipeline owners to make residents more aware of pipelines in their communities by educating them and getting them involved.

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State and federal law also requires interstate and intrastate pipelines to be marked, including the operators name and contact information.

These pipelines carry a variety of substances from petroleum and petroleum byproducts to highly volatile liquids such as raw mix and liquid natural gas. Operated by several large companies including Exxon, Shell, Plains, Texaco and others, they are not operated without risk.

Lafayette lawyer Gordon Schoeffler has been involved in several lawsuits regarding pipelines and said he believes residents should be concerned.

“Pipeline companies are looking for the quickest easiest way to get in the ground and get pumping product,” he said.

“It gives me great concern that they may be operating in the same manner as far as maintenance and safety is concerned.”

Mariano G. Hinojosa, director of pipelines with the Louisiana Office of Conservation for 31 years and now working as a consultant within the industry, said pipelines have been here since the turn of the century and have a good track record as being one of the safest modes of transportation.

National Estuary Program industry representative Ed Landgraff said the alternative would be thousands more trucks and vessels carrying the commodities on highways and rivers.

The Teche Area has been built on top of three types of pipleines.

Intrastate pipelines, regulated by the Louisiana Department of Conservation, interstate pipleines, regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation and flowlines, which Landgraff said are rarely mapped or marked and regulated by only the companies that utalize them for transport.

The Louisiana Department of Conservation, the U.S. Department of Transportation and internal monitoring by pipeline operators are responsible for ensuring they are operated in a safe way.

Campbell said the Department of Conservation has the authority to enforce federal regulations and is constantly monitoring third-party inspections of pipes and valves and company records to make sure everything is operating as it should.

Crosstex Energy of Dallas operates a pipeline in New Iberia that carries a highly volatile liquid called raw mix, a mixture of natural gas liquids such as propane and butane, before they are refined.

Their particular line runs from the east part of Iberia Parish, along Nelson Canal Road with a marker at the corner of Louisiana 182 and Nelson Canal, before continuing west through the city.

The Crosstex line runs under Stephen Minvielle’s property and he said he is more than a little concerned about living near it.

“When I did some research into this line, just after I bought the property, I was under the impression that it was origionally engineered to carry crude oil at a very low pressure,” he said.

“El Paso bought the line and used it to transport liguid natural gas at a much higher pressure without any modicfications to the pipeline, to my knowledge. The thought of what could happen with these companys operating like this worries me. And, they just seem to be allowed to do it.”

David Clark, a retired chemist from New Iberia, said if this particular line would rupture, it has the potential to spew raw mix into the air where the pressurized liquid would revert back to its natural gaseous state.

“On a calm day it would spew out of the hole driven by the pressure and collect around the point of rupture,” Clark said. “It wouldn’t necessarily explode, but any spark would cause it to erupt into flames.”

Despite the volatility of the raw mix, Clark said he believes while those living in proximity to the pipeline are at risk, he does not believe anyone is in danger.

“If you look at the history of these pipelines, they have a pretty good track record,” he said.

“When you consider the good they do, bringing gas into people’s homes, there is a risk, but it’s small in comparison.”

Crosstex maintains they have personnel who are well trained on safety and emergency response procedures and would be at the site of a problem within minutes.

“Protecting the general public, the environment and Iberia Parish is extremely important to Crosstex,” Jill McMillan, manager of public and industry affairs for the company, said.

“We believe in being proactive and conduct outreach programs to help educate the public about the services we provide and the operations we conduct.”

The Iberia Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness has standard operation, evacuation and sheltering plans in place in the event of a pipeline rupture or spill.

“We work very closely with the pipeline groups and attend meetings with them twice a year,” said Jim Anderson, OHSEP director.

“The first responders in the parish are trained on what to so in the event of a situation like this.”

Anderson said past experience shows pipelines are pretty safe.

“The Louisiana One Call program is the key,” he said. “It needs to be emphasized. If you are going to dig — call 811 first.”