BILLINGS, MT (AP)-- U.S. officials are proposing tighter safety rules for pipelines carrying oil, gasoline and other hazardous liquids after a series of ruptures that included an accident in Michigan that became the costliest onshore spill in the nation's history.
The U.S. Department of Transportation wants to expand pipeline inspection requirements and require companies to more closely analyze the results. The agency also would make companies re-check lines following floods and hurricanes.
Safety investigators have in part blamed ineffective government oversight for the 2010 Michigan accident that spilled 840,000 gallon of crude into the Kalamazoo River and nearby wetlands.
Other recent ruptures fouled waterways in Montana, California and Virginia, highlighting gaps in rules for roughly 200,000 miles of hazardous liquids lines across the U.S.
