Jun 3, 2007 6:02 am US/Eastern
Pipeline Companies Aware Of Terrorist Threat
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
Federal officials have warned of terrorist interest in targeting fuel pipelines, but for the Buckeye Pipe Line Co., which operates petroleum conduits in 18 states, the alleged plot nipped by federal authorities was a first, a spokesman said Saturday.
The threat, a plot targeting a 12-inch pipe that carries jet fuel to John F. Kennedy International Airport, was the first known incident of its kind in Buckeye's 121-year history, said Roy Haase, a spokesman at Buckeye Partners LP, in Breinigsville, Pa.
He said that in view of the nature of its business, Buckeye maintains an "intense and ongoing communications relationship" with federal Homeland Security officials, the FBI, New York fire and police and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the area's three major airports.
"We have been kept fully informed and apprised of this potential threat from the very beginning," Haase said.
He declined to discuss details of the plot or the security measures of the company, which operates conduits ranging more than 5,000 miles. Among these are the underground pipeline that runs from a pumping terminal in Linden, N.J., to various facilities in New York City, including the pipe to JFK.
"There was a time when we would brag about our safety and security features, but we would not do that now, for fear we would be undermining them," Haase said in a telephone interview.
The four suspects—a Guyanese-born American living in Brooklyn, two citizens of Guyana and one citizen of Trinidad—have been charged with conspiring to attack the airport, the gateway to New York and one of the nation's busiest.
The federal indictment, made public Saturday, said they intended to dynamite the pipeline and fuel storage tanks at JFK, "with the intent to cause death and bodily injury ... and extensive destruction."
Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline expert and president of Accufacts Inc., an energy consulting firm that focuses on pipelines and tank farms, said that a pipeline explosion would be "restricted" and would not travel up and down the line.
Such an explosion's force would depend on the amount of fuel under pressure, he said in a telephone interview.
"That doesn't mean wackos out there can't do damage and cause a fire, but those explosions and fires are going to be fairly restricted," he said.
While pipelines have been the target of terrorism in Britain, Colombia and Turkey, records show only one recent threat against a pipeline in the United States. In 2006, a Pennsylvania man was arrested for allegedly plotting to sabotage the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) and other petroleum facilities in New Jersey and Wyoming. There is no record that he was charged.
A report prepared for Congress a year ago said, however, that federal authorities have warned of Al Qaida interest in pipelines as "potential terror targets," especially the Alaska pipeline that handles 17 percent of U.S. domestic crude oil production.
"To date there have been no known Al Qaida attacks on TAPS or other U.S. pipelines, but operators remain alert," it said.
According to a 2005 study by an Arlington, Va., firm, Logos Technologies, about two thirds of U.S. petroleum products are moved by 200,000 miles of pipeline, with the Trans-Alaska pipeline especially vulnerable because its 800 miles are aboveground.
Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., whose district encompasses Queens and part of Nassau county, said the case particularly worried him because "I have half a million constituents living between JFK and LaGuardia airports, and it's horrifying to think of the consequences if this plot had not been foiled."
Haase said Buckeye's Linden pumping facility, with 45 storage tanks on site, serves two 12-inch pipelines that carry turbine fuel, gasoline, diesel and other fuel oils and heating oil to various customers in New York City, including JFK and LaGuardia airports—a network that totals 35 miles within the city alone. The underground conduits pass through populated areas of Queens.
Linden also serves an 8-inch line to Newark Liberty Airport and two other lines, 16 and 20 inches, to Pennsylvania and New York, respectively.
Buckeye, originally based in Lima, Ohio, dates its origin from the 1880s when efforts began to break up Standard Oil, founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1870. Predatory business practices led to Standard Oil's dissolution in Ohio in 1892, but it was reconstituted in New Jersey and finally broken up under federal antitrust laws in 1911.
Pipeline mishaps, unrelated to terrorism, killed at least seven people in the United States and 33 in Puerto Rico between 1980 and 1999, according to records. In 1994, a natural gas transmission line exploded at Edison, N.J., causing $25 million in damage and forcing the evacuation of 1,500 people.
In 2005 alone there were 124 oil pipeline accidents and 172 gas transmission pipeline mishaps, the Congressional study said.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
