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Pipeline Satiety testimony by senator Murray Page 1 of 4 <br />Pipeline Safety Testimony by Senator Murray <br />October 27, 1999 <br />On October 27, 1999, Senator Murray testified before the US. House of <br />Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on <br />Economic Development, Public Buildings, Hazardous Materials, and Pipeline <br />Transportation. Senator Murray's testimony follows: <br />Thank you Chairman Franks and Ranking Minority Member Wise for holding this <br />important hearing. <br />I would like to express my appreciation to all of the panelists -- especially Mr. Frank <br />King for coming here in what must be a very difficult period to share his personal <br />experience with us today. <br />I would also like to commend all of the responding partners including the Office of <br />Pipeline Safety, the National Transportation Safety Board, the City of Bellingham, <br />other federal and state agencies, and industry. <br />I'd particularly like to thank Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater for his <br />responsiveness and Rep. Jack Metcalf, my colleague from the second Congressional <br />district, for his leadership on this issue. <br />I'd also like to thank Mayor Mark Asmundson from Bellingham, who has done more <br />to educate all of us and to work to protect the people of Bellingham than any one I <br />know. <br />I wish we didn't have to be here today. I wish we could be confident that the pipelines <br />that carry hazardous materials through our communities are safe to live and work <br />around. <br />But my view of that safety changed forever on the evening of June 10th, when I <br />stepped off a plane from Washington, D.C. into the Seatac airport, and my cell phone <br />started ringing almost immediately. It was my sister, a teacher at Shuksan Middle <br />School in Bellingham, Washington. Her voice was frantic - "Patty have you heard? <br />Our whole world just blew up!" <br />The pipeline that runs directly under the parking lot of the school she teaches at blew <br />up -- just a block from where she spends every day with a classroom of young kids. <br />Thankfully the explosion occurred just hours after the last student had left. The <br />http: / /murray. senate .gov /pipelinetestnnony.htrnl 8 /22/02 <br />