List of pipeline accidents in the United States (1900–1949)

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The following is only a sample of natural gas and petroleum product accidents for this era. Gas and oil leaks and explosions were not tracked in an organized fashion except by fire marshals. Many leaks, fires, and explosions were not recorded unless they occurred in population centers with newspapers to report them. [1]

Contents

Later in the twentieth century, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), a U.S. Department of Transportation agency, would be established to develop and enforce regulations for the safe and environmentally sound operation of the United States' pipelines, and to collect data on pipeline leaks, accidents, and explosions. [2]

1900s

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1910s

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1920s

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1930s

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References

  1. Many early twentieth-century newspapers have been digitized and are searchable online. The U.S. Library of Congress provides access to 2,493 newspapers at https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/. Some states have digitized their newspapers; see Colorado Historic Newspapers at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org and Utah Digital Newspapers at https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/. Many public libraries also provide online access to the early New York Times, Boston Globe and other newspapers, or databases such as ProQuest.
  2. Data sets of PHMSA Pipeline Safety-Flagged Incidents for 1986-2001, 2002-2009, and 2010-2017 can be downloaded from the tab by that name on the PHMSA Pipeline Incident Flagged Files page, https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/pipeline-incident-flagged-files, accessed 2018.01.10.
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