pipeline on June 20, 1977. The NTSB released three recommendations on September 9, 1977, to correct certain design and operating deficiencies in the pump rooms of each station of the Alyeska system. A gas transmission pipeline exploded, forcing hundreds to evacuate in Columbus, Indiana on August 26. There was no fire or injuries. On September 5, 2 brothers in a moving truck drove into a vapor cloud from a leak at a gas compressor plant in New Cuyama, California, igniting the cloud. One was killed immediately, and the other died 11 days later. On September 10, a pipeline rupture spilled of gasoline into a creek in Toledo, Ohio. Corrosion of the pipeline caused the failure. A gas line inside a building in San Francisco, California leaked and exploded, injuring 7 and heavily damaging that building. Gas repair crews were working on the line at the time. On October 12, a bulldozer ruptured a propane pipeline near Albany, Georgia, causing nearby train traffic to be halted. The bulldozer engine was left running, nearly igniting the vapors. On October 30, a bulldozer hit a gas pipeline in Shreveport, Louisiana. The gas ignited, causing a 100 foot tall flame, killing one, and injuring 2 people. On November 6, a bulldozer being used by contractors for pipeline work stuck a 10 inch propane pipeline, near Ashland, Kansas. The bulldozer operator was seriously burned, and the bulldozer destroyed. A backhoe being used to install a pipeline hit an adjacent 6-inch propane pipeline on November 21 in Hutchinson, Kansas. Fire broke out, but there were no injuries. Construction workers punctured a 12-inch gas pipeline in Atlanta, Georgia, with an I-beam on December 1. No fire or explosion followed, but thousands of people were evacuated from nearby buildings. On December 10, a 2-inch plastic gas main cracked and migrated under a paved parking area in Tempe, Arizona. The gas reached a building 35 feet away from the leak, where it was ignited by a cigarette. The explosion and fire that followed killed 2 people, and injured 3 others. Investigations showed the main had been damaged previous, and had been repaired by applying a piece of tape, by a non-gas company person. A compression coupling joint between a plastic and a steel gas line pulled apart in Lawrence, Kansas on December 15. The gas migrated into 2 buildings, and exploded, killing 2 people, and injuring 3 others. References