The 12.5″ natural gas pipe was 41″ deep. Just as the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010 was not a “spill” (it was an explosion), the reason 37,000 customers in eastern Washington and northwestern Idaho have no heat or hot water and can’t cook meals is not a gas pipeline “leak.”
In each case, however, news organizations minimized the extent of the man-made disaster with weasel words.
