The United States has 1.3 million miles of natural gas distribution mains, but there are only about 500 inspectors to check pipelines, according to Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

In Pennsylvania, 12 inspectors are responsible for 48,000 miles of gas mains regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, and 13 inspectors and 21 contractors are responsible for 7,400 miles of Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania’s gas mains. These low numbers of inspectors make it impossible to find every leak, contributing to the reported 120 deaths and $775 million in damages caused by natural gas explosions nationwide in the last 10 years.

Natural gas pipelines aren’t as easy to monitor as water and sewer utilities. The latter two can be inspected by robotic and remote cameras, while access points have to be cut into pipes in order to monitor natural gas lines. Usually, gas company workers have to sniff out gas leaks on foot, but technology is developing so that natural gas detectors can be mounted on drones to decrease the workload and time needed to detect gas leaks.

Via: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review > Lack of government inspectors leaves gas pipeline inspections to utilities