Minerva Mendoza lived in her tiny East Harlem apartment for 18 years. But for the last few months, she’s been afraid to go back to her home.
One morning in March, eight people were killed and more than 70 others injured when two buildings next door to her old apartment collapsed in an explosion. Debris cascaded down onto sidewalks and nearby elevated subway tracks. At that moment, Mendoza was standing at the stove.
“When that happened, I just thought I was going to die, and thought this building was going to have collapsed,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. “I was wondering what was gonna happen to my kids, four of them were already at school.”
The Mendoza family is among the nearly 100 households displaced by the explosion. The mother of five has been living with her husband in a nearby temporary apartment provided by the city. The memory of the blast still haunts her.
“Every noise, I get scared," she said. "Any noise.”
The blast happened less than 20 minutes after a neighbor called to report a gas smell. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is still investigating the explosion, a 125-year-old gas main running under Park Avenue was leaking near the buildings that exploded.
The spark that started the blaze remains a mystery. But it cast a spotlight on the labyrinth of aging pipes carrying gas not only under New York, but cities throughout the country. Older cities on the East Coast, like New York, Boston and Philadelphia, are especially vulnerable, as they were built on cast-iron vintage pipe.
While 2.5 percent of mains in America are cast iron, they account for 10.5 percent of incidents, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In Washington, D.C, for example, there are nearly 6,000 gas leaks over 1,500 miles of road, according to researchers from Duke University and Boston University, who spent months driving around in a customized car outfitted with air-sucking tubes. The vast majority of these aren’t dangerous, but the researchers did identify 12 potentially explosive pockets of methane inside manholes -- more than twice the national average for cities.
Across the country, explosions from gas leaks aren’t common, especially not one on the scale of the incident in Harlem. The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration reports that natural gas pipeline failures cause an average of 17 fatalities, 68 injuries and $133 million in property damage every year.
After the Harlem blast, New York’s Public Service Commission, which oversees gas companies, told state legislators, “final responsibility rests squarely with the natural gas companies to ensure the reliability and safety of the gas distribution system.”
Con Edison was responsible for the gas mains where the explosion occurred, and the investigation has not yet determined whether the company is at fault. But Con Ed dispatched a team two minutes after receiving the call about the gas smell, and the blast happened 15 minutes after that.
“Con Ed dispatched a team immediately to respond,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said a few days after the explosion. “The explosion occurred before that team could arrive.”
Utility companies are working to replace old cast-iron mains. Gerry Lundquist, director of contruction at National Grid, says his company replaces an average of 43 miles a year in their New York City territory alone, and that over the last 10 years, they’ve almost cut their leak rate in half.
But it’s not as simple as just replacing all the old stuff underground. Utility commissions are the ones that determine how much companies can spend on repairs. And according to Con Edison spokesman Mike Clendenin, not only are a lot of the cast-iron and unprotected steel pipes performing perfectly well, but replacing them all just in their system would cost around $10 billion.
“You’re looking at an enormous, enormous cost to customers, that would probably be like throwing money down the drain too,” he said.
Under the regulations of New York’s commission, utility companies receive a yearly evaluation, with performance based on damage prevention, emergency response and leak management. Con Edison was the only utility company to improve in all areas.
If a utility is found at fault for violating gas safety codes, there are hefty fines. For Con Edison’s shareholders, that would mean a loss of $29 million this year if performance standards aren’t met, according to the commission.
Clendenin said the penalties serve a reminder that this should be taken seriously, but that ultimately, it’s not about the money.
“Many of our workers, our 15,000 employees, live and breathe and work in the city of New York, too,” Clendenin said. “Their neighbors use Con Edison utilities; they themselves do, too. For their own personal safety and everyone’s safety, we want to make sure that nothing like this happens. So, it’s in everyone’s interest to make sure that we do a good job.”
But those words aren’t enough to reassure Mendoza, as she prepares to move back to her home that no longer feels safe
“Now, I’m very nervous, because when we come back, I don’t know if the gas is gonna be correctly done,” Mendoza said. “…when I get here, I get afraid.” She added: "Thank God we were okay. We were scared, but we were okay.”
President pressures lawmakers to back $302 billion transportation plan and fix nation's decaying roads and bridges
Robin Speronis lives off the grid, independent of the city's water and electric system. A Florida court ruled this off-the-grid living illegal.
Error
Sorry, your comment was not saved due to a technical problem. Please try again later or using a different browser.