The cable television subcontractors who pierced a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. natural gas pipeline two hours before a nearby house exploded last month did not violate any state occupational health and safety guidelines, according to state officials.
In a report released yesterday, Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) said that neither Apollo Trenching Co. -- the Howard County company whose digging equipment struck the gas main Jan. 19 -- nor Prestige Cable Television of Maryland put employees at undue risk that afternoon.
The report, contrary to media accounts yesterday, does not place blame on anyone for the explosion. The blast, sparked by a sump pump in the basement of a vacant house, destroyed one home, damaged 65 others and caused more than $1 million in damage to the Autumn Ridge neighborhood in north Westminster.
"Our focus is a very narrow one," said Craig Lowry, chief of compliance for MOSH. "Our job is to make sure that employers are meeting their obligations for a safe and healthful workplace. It is not our charge or responsibility to look at negligence or fault."
Mr. Lowry said his report does not say that the gas pipelines were mismarked by BGE or Miss Utility, the underground pipe locating service that contractors are required to call before digging.
The report is the second state-issued document on the explosion to be released this week. On Monday, the Public Service Commission placed blame for the rupture on Apollo. The report -- which also didn't assess blame for the explosion -- called BGE's response to the pipeline break "adequate."
BGE and Apollo officials took differing views of the MOSH report.
Leonard C. Redmond III, an attorney representing Apollo owner Reid Oliver, said the report exonerates his client.
The report, he noted, said Apollo workers had dug a trench before they began laying their wire, and they did not notice any "tracer wires" above the pipeline.
"They did what they customarily do, and, since they didn't find anything to indicate that the gas line was where it was, they began their job," Mr. Redmond said. Mr. Oliver, the sole owner of Apollo, has been in the trenching business for about five years. "This was an accident," the lawyer said.
Federal law requires tracer wires on all nonmetal pipelines, according to John Erickson, vice president of engineering for the American Gas Association. But, he said, tracer wires come in two forms: one is placed about a half-foot above the pipeline, while another is wrapped around the pipe itself, as was the case in Westminster.
BGE, meanwhile, took exception with MOSH's assertion that Apollo had dug the trench referred to in the report. Art Slusark, a spokesman for the utility, said the trench was dug by BGE workers who tried to repair the gas main after it was severed.
Mr. Lowry declined to comment on the discrepancy.
BGE has contended that Apollo should have used a hand shovel to dig a test hole near the gas line. Although such a procedure is recommended by Miss Utility and is the law in many states and in some Maryland counties, it is not required by state or Carroll law.
BGE contradicted an article in yesterday's Carroll County Times, which claimed that the gas lines had been mismarked.
"The plastic gas main was properly installed and properly marked," Mr. Slusark said in a statement. "The problem arose because the contractor failed to dig a test pit to determine the depth of the gas main."
Mr. Lowry said his organization's look into the explosion is complete.