In the early morning of August 19, 2000, a 30-inch-diameter underground natural gas pipeline operated by El Paso Natural Gas, ruptured violently near a crossing of the Pecos River, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The flame that sprayed from the break burned to death 12 campers — members of an extended family — as they slept nearly 200 yards away, under a nearby bridge.

The explosion blew a crater 86 feet long, 46 feet wide, and 20 feet deep. It hurled a 22-foot segment of pipe about 270 feet west, where it struck support cables for a bridge that crosses the river. Another 20-foot piece of pipe was thrown onto the south side of the crater. In all, about 60 feet of pipe was damaged.

When firefighters arrived at the scene of the August 19, 2000 pipeline explosion near Carlsbad, NM, at 6:12 am, they estimated flames to be 500 feet high. At 6:21 am, El Paso employees manually closed valves to shut off the flow of gas. The fire was said to be visible 20 miles to the north in the town of Carlsbad. Property damage (mainly to the pipeline equipment) was estimated at $998,000.

The pipeline was a high-pressure transmission pipeline carrying gas from Texas and New Mexico to Arizona and California. Pipeline company records show that, at about 5:30 am, pressure within the pipeline dropped from 673 pounds per square inch (psig) to 377 psig. The maximum allowable operating pressure for this pipeline was 837 psig.

This terrible accident raised concerns in the public and at all levels of government about the safety of the pipeline system's design and construction, the competence of its operators, and the adequacy of its safety regulation.

This case study explores what happened at Carlsbad and the resulting public debate about pipeline safety from four policy perspectives. Select one to investigate.