Pipeline damage in dispute

Associated Press

BELLINGHAM — Newly released court documents offer conflicting accounts about whether construction workers caused damage that contributed to a deadly gasoline pipeline explosion here in 1999.

A worker on a Bellingham water line project in 1994 said he watched an IMCO General Construction excavator strike the Olympic pipeline in Whatcom Falls Park, then patch the pipe and cover it up without alerting Olympic Pipe Line Co. officials.

But IMCO representatives deny their workers ever damaged the pipeline and called the water line worker’s account a fabrication.

Both versions of the incident are included in court depositions made public earlier this month. The Bellingham Herald reported on the court documents in its Wednesday edition.

Olympic Pipe Line officials have said that construction damage to the pipeline contributed to its rupture and explosion June 10, 1999. The rupture led to the deaths of 10-year-olds Wade King and Stephen Tsiorvas and 18-year-old Liam Wood of Bellingham, and scorched more than a mile and a half of Whatcom Creek.

The allegation against the IMCO workers appears in a June 2000 deposition by Mark Graham, who worked for an IMCO subcontractor on the city water line project in the park five years before the rupture.

Graham’s deposition is part of a civil lawsuit in the pipeline case. IMCO has asked to be dismissed from the lawsuit.

But Graham’s account is disputed by two then-IMCO employees: the excavator operator, Britton Lukes, and project manager Paul Krakenberg. Their depositions also were recently made public.

In an interview with the Bellingham newspaper this week, Lukes said Graham’s story is a fabrication.

"I don’t feel like I have anything to worry about," Lukes said. "I didn’t do anything."

In his deposition, Graham testified he questioned Lukes about digging so close to the pipeline as part of a water pipe project.

"And the next thing I hear is metal to metal and a very definite impact," Graham said in the deposition.

Graham said he ran, fearing an explosion, and told Paul Krakenberg, who was the assistant foreman on the job, what had happened.

By the time Graham and Krakenberg returned to the excavation site, Graham said, Lukes and another worker were digging around the pipeline with shovels to determine any damage.

"I saw a very large dent. It had four distinct teeth marks," Graham said, describing the dent as at least 2 feet wide and at least 1 inch deep. "The metal was bright, shiny. It was a definite fresh blow."

Graham said Krakenberg wanted to rebury the line.

"I said, ‘What’s going to keep this thing from failing 10, 15 years from now?’ " Graham testified.

Graham said Krakenberg paused, then asked an employee to get asphalt sealer to cover the damage and told him to backfill the excavated hole.

IMCO attorney Francis Floyd said Graham will be questioned again.

"There are serious doubts about what he says," Floyd said. "We expect to impeach him in a number of critical areas."

IMCO argues that Olympic found problems on the section of pipe that ruptured three years before the explosion but did nothing to correct any damage. Floyd said other excavation work occurred near the pipeline after 1994 that could have caused backhoe marks.

The civil lawsuit, brought by the families of the 10-year-old boys, is scheduled to go to trial April 22. Attorneys for Olympic are asking the court to move the trial from Whatcom County. A hearing has been set for March 25.

In September, a federal grand jury returned indictments against Olympic, three employees and Equilon Pipeline, which managed the pipeline at the time of the rupture. The criminal charges allege pollution and violation of pipeline safety laws.

That case is scheduled to go to trial in October.