A partnership can be established between the federal government and states whereby states can protect their citizens without interfering with interstate commerce, particularly in cases where the states have expertise or where the federal government could have acted, but the federal regulatory agency has chosen not to act. It is for this reason that I heartily support Senate Bill 2004 offered by Senator Murray and cosponsored by Senator Gorton. My testimony thus far consists of an overview of the results of my quite extensive examination of pipeline safety in America, the Federal OPS, and the attempts by certain states to improve the safety of their citizens. I would now like to discuss what pipeline safety means in real, practical, human terms. Fundamentally, pipeline safety is not about legislation, and it is not about federal bureaucracies.
Pipeline safety is about people and the environment.
The effects of the rupture are not abstract or theoretical, they are real. They are practical. In Bellingham's case, it meant attending the funerals of three wonderful boys in one week, along with a community of thousands of mourners. It meant the disruption of the water supply to one-quarter of the citizens of our community, and restrictions on water use, while alternate facilities were being developed to provide an adequate water supply. It meant the indefinite delay of salmon restoration projects on a salmon-bearing urban stream.