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' .a. 7D: 1y ,A had 4s chance t~ regulate h} )en SU!fide http. Nnvw chron.con denUchronicie/paBetKJ t liO9lh.- air. ,rol On 11ay iU, I rs. the tiational Transportation Satety Board recommended to the L'.S Department of i'ramportation that it establish a maximum allowable hydrogen sulfide concentration for natura{ gas in rnpelines- chat pipeline operarors be rewired to install detection and shurof£equiprnent that would respond automatically when maximum levels were exceeded; and that such incidents be reported Chc tiT~A didn't pull this proposal out of thin air There had been several disturbing pipeline incidents, including one ne•u W'imars, Texas, on Aug 12, 1987. A gas stream feeding a Lone Star Gas plant was found to contain 1,600 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide several times the lethal dose Residents ware safely evacuated, but it was learned that an automatic shutol~'valve programmed to close the pipeline when hydrogen sulfide levels exceeded 6 ppm had tailed. Lone Star told the N"CSB that rt had had I 1 other incidents im~oiving excess hydragen sulfide levels in its pipelines since 1477 On June 1989. the Transponatiun Department accepted the 1\"CBS's recommendations and published an "advance notice of proposed rulemaking "Like the LPA, it was quickly inundated with letters Tl.e consensus among companies such as Texaco, Phillips, Chevron, Tenneco and Lone Star was that ti,t regulat,ons were unnecessary and would be prohibitively expensive. On'~4arch 7, 1446, the 1'ransportatior[ Department formally abandoned the idea, much to the annoyance of the NTSB. The case'or an LPA crackdown on hydrogen sulfide was made at a hearing before the Senate Conunittee an Fnvinmment and Publi,: `r~ orks on June 14, I ~i87 The two witnesses tha[ day were from Kurth Dakota, home of the late Sen Quentin Burdick, then chairman of the committee John Brophy of the f argu->ti1~.ortread Audubon Socier~ and John Lantb with the Dacotah Chapter of tLc Sierra Club testified that hydrogen sulfide releases from oil and gas wells in the western part ofthe state had killed catt{c and caused the evacuation and hospitalisation of people They pleaded for fcdera! intervention it never came- Dr Harriet An•mtannjoined the EPA's science staft~in 1\orth Carolina in 148-1 and ;gas immedately handed the tali: of researching hydrogen sulfide ShE: did so, off az[d on, for the next six years. authoring a de!-tried health-assessment document or. tho chemical before leaving the agency In 149n. Noti a sen•ier toxicologist wah the Washingh?n Department afNealth in r7lympia, •Ammaan is convinced that an important opportunity was missed when hydrogen stdfide was bumped from the flazardou~ Sir PnShuant list "1 don't know why it was removed," she said recesttly "We were working on risk; to the general public and the puh~lie is e~posai to it in areas tvhcre there are facilities that produce it. "!i's r!early knowT, front industrial exposu"es, that it's a very toxic gas," Ammann said. "It hasn`t gc•tr_n lot ot~rc~itect. in a ,;n,e, because even~one', smelled it and [node jokes about it $ut there's no one cvlto ~~ould srtrrd even ~0 parts per million of it t ha4e encountered it in a number of different situations it this StaiC i'he riT.~ !ist tiua exi,s today took shape in 188, when then-Sen- George Mitchell, D-:viaine, submitted ,F,r ritme_..rt ~hrn~,;c,il<,:zr;~c~ tr~>m rtu~e FP~~;tnrabesc•s.