ABBEYSTEAD EXPLOSION

1. Summarize the main causes of the disaster and the human errors involved.
Basically, the main cause of the disaster was the accumulation of methane gas &
air within the pipeline. The pipelines were not designed to handle flammable gases,
because in reality, the presence of gas such mentioned above were not expected to be
in those pipelines. It was also due to the fact that the surrounding rock formation
which covers the pipelines had water leaking into it (due to the fact that the material
used was porous), and had dissolved methane in it. Entry of the water with the
dissolved methane caused it to undergo reduced pressure, and soon became
accumulated gas in the chambers. In the 17 days that the pipeline was closed, the
accumulation was too great, and a spark provided by the visitors would provide the
trigger needed for it to explode.
There were many human errors found in the design, construction, operation and
maintenance of such facility. In the design and construction phase, it was not
recognized that the rocks were not rich in quantities of methane. It was a negligence
on their part, due to the failure in their sensor which was unable to pick up and
distinguish methane from other gases. Also, there were no provisions to discharge
accumulated gas in the pipelines, which was directly overlooked by the designers due
to the fact that it supposedly was not present in the tunnel built for the pipelines. In
the operation and maintenance part, it was found that these pipelines were not
supposed to stop pumping water out, but it was stopped for quite a while. Training of
staff was also inadequate in the sense that they provided an incompetency which
proved to be the demise of 13 members of the public, as well as 3 employees of the
NWWA.

2. Make a HAZOPS (Hazards and Operability Study) to identify all possible hazards. What
are the possible corrective or preventive actions which might have been carried out to
reduce the likelihood of the error or other failure?

A preventive action that would have saved the lives of people was that of making
sure that the rock formations arent containing water with dissolved methane. This
is due to the fact that the sensing device used by the construction company failed
in identifying methane from other gases. Another preventive action that can be
taken into account, is that of the design. This pertains to the actual consideration
that a formation of such flammable or inflammable gases can take place, and such

a design has to have a certain compensation for such action.

Corrective actions can include following the operation manual for the pipelines,
as well as the valves properly and continuously running water in the pipelines so

as no accumulation of such gases can take place.

In the first place, the build-up of sludge was to blame. This can also be prevented

in the design of the pipelines, so as not to let grease & dirt into the system.
Proper training of the staff on the situations can also be a great factor, as they can
decide not to turn off the pipelines when they do know that an accumulation of

such deadly gases can take place.

One more preventive action is that the wet room can be off limits to people,
except the maintenance staff who will keep such room in check for the presence
of explosive compounds.

Resources:
[1] http://www.walsall.org.uk/healthandsafety/disaster_report_abbeystead.pdf
[2] http://www.hse.gov.uk/comah/sragtech/caseabbeystead84.htm
[3] http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-27558227