Rondon Gas Safety Bill Passed As Part Of Year-End Funding Bill

LAWRENCE, MA — A gas pipeline safety bill introduced in response to the Sept. 2018 Merrimack Valley gas explosions was signed into law as part of the federal end-of-year funding and coronavirus relief bill Sunday.

The bill, named the Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act in honor of the Lawrence teenager who died in the accident, requires on-site monitoring of gas system pressure to prevent similar incidents, among other measures.

The explosions also injured 22 people and damaged 131 structures across Andover, Lawrence and North Andover.

Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Lori Trahan introduced the bill in April 2019.

“Passage of the Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act pays honor and tribute to the life of Leonel Rondon and serves as a small justice for the Merrimack Valley community,” Markey said in a statement. “The natural gas explosions that struck Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover more than two years ago were yet another example of corporations cutting corners to turn a profit.”

“For too long, outdated and insufficient safety regulations have failed the communities they were supposed to protect," Trahan said. "Passage of the Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act will apply the many lessons taken from this tragedy – including those informed by NTSB’s experts – to ensure that no community ever has to experience this type of terrible devastation again.”

The bill includes the following provisions:

• "Improve emergency response coordination with the public and first responders, ensuring information is shared and residents are not left in the dark
• Require the use of qualified employees, such as professional engineers, to approve gas engineering plans or significant changes to the system
• Promote best industry practices for holistic safety management
• Mandate on-site monitoring of gas system pressure by qualified employees during construction so that a dangerous situation can be stopped before it happens
• Require regulator stations – which are critical to preventing over-pressurizations – to be configured in such a way so that there are technological redundancies that can keep disasters from taking place
• Require natural gas distribution system operators to assemble traceable, reliable, and complete maps and records of key pressure controls of the pipeline system, and to ensure that those records are accessible for anyone doing construction or engineering work on the system."

“We want to thank Senator Markey and Congresswoman Trahan for putting forth this legislation, focused on creating safer living environments for all Americans, making it so that the tragedies faced in the Merrimack Valley won’t ever happen anywhere else,” said Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera. “The Merrimack Valley Gas Explosion was an example of an egregious oversight for corporate gain and showed how much work needed to be done to create equitable living standards. These provisions directed towards this work will improve accountability, emergency response, and on-site monitoring in all matters relating to pipeline safety.”

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.