Hawaii is one of two states without state oversight of natural gas pipeline safety, leaving the responsibility to a short-staffed federal agency.

Federal and utility company inspectors conduct regular checks of Oahu’s main gas transmission line, said Jeffrey Kissel, president and chief executive officer of the Gas Co.

But the lack of state inspections is troubling to a watchdog organization for pipeline safety.

"While other states are stepping in to ask for the authority to help inspect their pipelines because they realize the federal inspectors are spread too thin, Hawaii seems to be going in the other direction and hoping there are enough federal inspectors to protect them," said Carl Weimer, executive director of Pipeline Safety Trust, based in Bellingham, Wash.

Alaska is the other state that does not bear oversight of gas pipelines.

Awareness of pipeline safety was heightened after a gas pipeline ruptured Sept. 9 in San Bruno, Calif., south of San Francisco, causing an explosion and fire that killed eight people and destroyed 37 homes.

Until last year, Hawaii law assigned responsibility for gas pipeline safety to the state Public Utilities Commission.

In 1992 the PUC failed to fill a vacant pipeline inspector position despite repeated warnings. The U.S. Department of Transportation yanked the PUC’s safety certification in 1993 for failure to adequately comply with federal requirements of a pipeline safety program.

The PUC successfully pushed last year to repeal the Hawaii law that gave it oversight responsibility. PUC Chairman Carl Caliboso said the agency’s budget was strapped and that it was redundant for the state to do what federal inspectors were already doing.

"It became a budget issue" in a year of belt-tightening, Caliboso said. "Do we need to fund this if the feds are already doing it? Since we weren’t doing it and we didn’t have funding for it, we may as well change the law."

Hawaii’s pipelines are now inspected by federal inspectors from the Office of Pipeline Safety, operating under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

But Weimer said congressional hearings revealed that there are only about 100 federal inspectors to check all of the nation’s gas pipelines.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has not responded to questions submitted Sept. 14 by the Star-Advertiser, including, What is the condition of the state’s pipelines, and how often are they inspected?

A 2005 letter from the Office of Pipeline Safety to the PUC said federal inspectors check all Hawaii pipeline facilities at least once a year and that they inspect the Gas Co.’s pipelines more frequently.

Gas Co. CEO Kissel assures Oahu residents the company is vigilant with regular maintenance and safety inspection practices in place.

"We worry about every inch of our system," he said. "When this event occurred (in San Bruno), we worked the weekend, assembled our key personnel to do a review of our complete system of practices and procedures."

The company says federal inspectors check its pipelines more than once a year.

Hawaii has one 22-mile synthetic natural gas transmission line, running from Campbell Industrial Park, where the gas is manufactured, to Honolulu Harbor. Smaller distribution lines feed gas into residential and business areas.

"It’s not anything like San Bruno," Kissel said. "That pipeline ran under a residential neighborhood."

About 15,792 homes and businesses lie within a 660-foot radius of The Gas Co.’s transmission line, built in 1974 in conjunction with construction of a new plant, company spokeswoman Stephanie Ackerman said.

The plant puts out 7 million to 7.5 million cubic feet of synthetic natural gas daily, with 20 percent going to residential customers and 80 percent to commercial customers. The Gas Co. has 70,000 customers, with between 30,000 to 35,000 households served.

Chevron Hawaii, whose pipelines transport crude oil, diesel, jet fuel and gasoline, and Tesoro Hawaii Corp., whose lines carry gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and bunker fuel (for ships), also report aggressively monitoring and maintaining its lines.

Chevron spokesman Al Chee said sections of the line are replaced as needed. For example, Chevron replaced five miles of pipeline within Campbell Industrial Park last year, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.