"MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. — TransCanada Corp. CEO Russ Girling pledged "years of safe, reliable and efficient operation" last year when his company launched the Leach Xpress natural gas pipeline.

Five months later, it blew up, snapped by a landslide.

"It was 4:10 in the morning, and it was like daylight," recalled Charlie Friend, who lives here, near the steep hollow where the 36-inch pipe ruptured about a year ago.

The blast was one of at least six pipeline explosions caused by landslides and similar hazards since early 2018 in Appalachia. They're piling up just as companies work to export the bounty of the Marcellus Shale by planting a new crop of pipelines across the region's valleys, ridgetops and hillsides.

The blasts are alarming federal pipeline safety regulators and inspiring fear along the paths of the big, high-pressure gas lines."

Mike Soraghan reports for EnergyWire June 4, 2019. [2]