GLOUSTER- Engineers say landslides and a crack in a pipeline weld caused the natural gas line explosion that destroyed three houses and a barn in rural southern Ohio last year.
People as far as 12 miles away felt the Nov. 16 explosion near Glouster, but no one was seriously hurt. Houston-based Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. said the rupture was in its interstate natural gas transmission line.
The Athens Messenger ) says engineers investigating the cause of the blast concluded that there was a pre-existing crack in a weld and that soil movement created extra stress on the pipeline.
A spokesman for the company that has since purchased Tennessee Gas Pipeline says it has developed a remediation plan and is working with regulators to get that finalized.
