On June 24, abnormally high pressure in a Hsinchu Gas Co pipeline caused an explosion in an apartment in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北), resulting in considerable damage and seriously injuring one person. Various theories have been floated over who or what was to blame for the accident.
When Kaohsiung was struck by a series of gas explosions on July 31, 2014, local and national agencies sought to shift the blame by saying there was no law governing the pipelines. This was despite the existence of the 1988 Regulations for Labor Safety of High-pressure Gas (高壓氣體勞工安全規則).
Although that law set safety standards for the manufacture, supply, storage, transportation and use of high-pressure gases, the Ministry of Labor said it only regulated factory interiors.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs echoed that view, saying that the law needed to be amended to “treat pipelines as an extension of factory equipment.”
However, the 1988 regulations clearly list the items of “transportation” and “consumption,” which obviously connect factories to outside areas and involve outside activities. The law gives the government power over these items and clearly stipulates the actions that should be taken to safeguard people’s lives, health and property.
Consequently, the transportation by businesses of high-pressure gases through pipelines should comply with these standards of installation and safety.
If the authorities in charge had inspected the pipelines in accordance with the law and discovered at an early stage that they were improperly installed and corroded, and if they had also made sure that the workers responsible for operating the equipment were capable of implementing the relevant safety measures, the tragedy might have been avoided.
Learning from this bitter experience, the Kaohsiung City Government enacted the 2015 Kaohsiung City Self-Government Ordinance on the Management of Existing Industrial Pipelines (高雄市既有工業管線管理自治條例), which established a supervision and inspection mechanism to manage the industrial pipelines under the city’s jurisdiction.
In contrast, the Hsinchu Gas Co, which is wholly owned and run by the Hsinchu County Government, has been shown to be insufficiently regulated and to have long-standing problems that led to last month’s incident.
The only way to guarantee public safety is to strictly manage pipeline safety and enhance awareness of disaster prevention.
Jiang Zung-shiang is a lawyer.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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