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Gas Explosions in Massachusetts Highlight 'Deeper' Infrastructure Problems

Just weeks before the Merrimack Valley explosions, federal pipeline regulators audited the state’s utility commission and raised concerns about attrition among the agency’s inspectors.

By Kay Lazar and Jon Chesto

An underground labyrinth of leak-prone, corroding natural gas pipes. Mounting pressure on utilities to upgrade ancient infrastructure. A chronic shortage of trained workers. And a surge of retirements among state inspectors.

This is the backdrop for the natural gas fires and explosions that rocked the Merrimack Valley Sept. 13.

The gas lines that wend throughout the state, beneath city streets, and into people’s homes are overseen by a patchwork of bureaucracies and a regulatory system that largely trusts utility companies to police themselves.

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