Still, even some critics of pipeline companies and the regulators who police them acknowledge that the age of a pipeline may not be important. In a way, a pipeline can be looked at much the same way a fisherman looks at his boat. From the instant it is launched, the boat begins a slow decline toward destruction. The fisherman spends much of his time fighting that process and keeping his boat afloat. There are even acid-producing bacteria in the soil that can eat away at the pipe.
Corrosion is a persistent problem.
It causes 60 percent of all pipeline leaks in California and at least 20 percent nationally. Liquid pipelines, which are nearly all made of steel, can corrode from inside or out. And the corrosion can be surprisingly swift. In May 1995, Koch Pipeline Co. did an internal inspection of a liquid butane line east of Dallas. The inspection picked up some areas where the pipe had to be repaired or replaced.