Five railroad tank cars with unodorized propane found at facility

Five railroad tank cars containing unodorized propane remained within DCP Midstream’s Westfield, Mass., distribution facility during a September inspection and testing, according to an independent examiners report commissioned by the state. The tank cars were shipped to DCP’s Westfield terminal from Illinois-based Aux Sable Liquid Products in July and ordered back to Aux Sable. Propane at four facilities associated with Heritage Propane also had deficient levels of odorant, according to the report by Engineering Systems Inc. While these facilities received a bulk of their propane from DCP’s Westfield facility, there remains no direct evidence that any propane with an insufficient amount of odorant was shipped from the DCP Westfield facility, the report states. According to the report, DCP has taken steps to ensure that all future propane deliveries, both to its Westfield facility and to its customers from the facility, are properly odorized. A lengthy investigation into underodorized propane in the state followed a fatal explosion on July 30 at a condominium construction site in Norfolk, Mass. That investigation revealed that the propane source involved in the incident was deficient in odorant.