Calif. pipeline reopens; LV ‘dodges bullet’

Monday, Dec. 29, 2003 | 11:49 a.m.

The deadly mud slides that washed out a church camp near San Bernardino, Calif., and killed several children also washed away the soil protecting a 300-foot section of pipeline carrying gasoline from California to Nevada.

The Kinder Morgan pipeline was shut down as a safety precaution from 4 p.m. Friday until 4 this morning, spokesman Rick Rainey said.

Because the pipeline, near Riverside and Highland avenues at Lytle Creek, was down only for the weekend, Rainey said there should be no shortages at Las Vegas Valley gasoline stations. The pipeline is the main supplier of gasoline to Southern Nevada, but the terminal maintains a supply on hand, Rainey said.

The washout, however, was "unbelieveable," Rainey said.

"We've never had any sort of damage like this before," he said.

The pipeline itself remained intact amid the onslaught of rain, mud and debris that washed the surrounding protective covering away, Rainey said. There were no leaks or spillage.

"When you have a pipeline exposed, you don't want to risk anything, so we shut it down for safety," Rainey said.

Peter Krueger, state executive for the Nevada Petroleum Marketers Association, said only a few stations ran out of premium fuel because of the shutdown.

"From my understanding, there was plenty of (regular) around," Krueger said.

Out of dozens of gasoline stations called this morning, only one, a Terrible Herbst, reported any shortages over the weekend.

"We came close to running out last night," said Ed Mlynski, manager of the Terrible Herbst at 2601 Wigwam Parkway. "I know we were down to 800 or 900 gallons when we got a delivery."

Mlynski said his distributor was backed up, but he did not know whether it was because of the pipeline closure. The Terrible Herbst received three deliveries late Sunday.

All other gasoline stations in the valley reported everything was up and running fine, with no shortages and no price hikes.

"There was plenty of supply in Las Vegas," said Ed Crawford, general manager of Crawford Oil, which owns several stations in town, including all of the Green Valley Markets. "The pipeline was only down three days."

Sean Comey, a spokesman for the Nevada American Automobile Association, said gasoline prices had actually dropped half a cent overnight and there was no indication prices would rise because of the temporary pipeline closure.

"We are going to monitor it carefully because it seems like virtually any excuse can trigger a price hike," Comey said, adding that it was too early to tell.

Service stations also typically receive fuel long before they run out, so the 2 1/2 days the pipeline was down should have little effect on gasoline prices or supplies in Las Vegas, Rainey said.

Krueger said the pipeline often shuts down for a day or two because of scheduled maintenance or other minor repairs, but that this shutdown raised fears because it was uncertain how long the pipeline would be down.

"This is another example of us dodging a bullet," Krueger said, adding there should be no spike in gasoline prices because of the closure was less than 72 hours.

Clark County requires a specific blend of gasoline in the winter that service stations here can only get from the California site, Krueger said.

"We are very limited from where we can get fuel," Krueger said.

The state Department of Agriculture is working on contingency plans for long-term interruptions in fuel distribution that would allow county representatives to temporarily suspend some of the fuel requirements that make Clark County so difficult to supply, Krueger said. Right now, the governor would have to declare a fuel emergency to overrule the regulations, something that would cause a panic, Krueger said.

Kinder Morgan ships gasoline through its pipelines to different terminals across the United States. Chevron, Exxon and other gasoline companies retain ownership of the fuel and distribute it to stations from Kinder Morgan's terminals.

Rebel Oil Co. also has a private terminal in the Las Vegas area that is separate from Kinder Morgan and distributes gasoline to the area, Rainey said. Companies can also truck in gasoline from the Colton, Calif., terminal if a pipeline is down for a significant amount of time.