On August 24, 2000, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Mr. Jim Hall, released a statement after his visit to the site of the El Paso Natural Gas Company pipeline rupture last weekend near Carlsbad, New Mexico that killed 11 people. It reads in part:

"National Transportation Safety Board investigators thus far have determined that the section of pipe that failed during this accident was originally installed in 1952. It is unfortunate that this pipe had never been inspected with an internal inspection tool or hydrostatically tested in all that time. There are no federal regulations requiring such tests. Although this section of pipeline as configured could not accommodate an internal inspection tool, it could have been pressure tested or examined by other means. The NTSB has been urging mandatory testing requirements such as internal inspections and pressure tests since 1987. No American would want to use any transportation vehicle that would not be properly inspected for 48 years, nor should we have pipelines travelling though any of our communities in this condition."

The full text of this and other NTSB press releases is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/pressrel/pressrel.htm.