Residents Raise Concerns About Gas Pipelines Beneath Rose Hill Junior High

Some residents who live near  are concerned that a pair of gas pipelines buried underneath the school property could cause additional danger to  students and staff during and after the 's construction of a new school on the site.

The pipelines, which measure 16 inches and 20 inches in diameter, are part of a 400-mile-long system that is owned by the Olympic Pipe Line Company and runs from Ferndale, Wa., to Portland, Ore. In 1999, a rupture along the pipeline in Bellingham caused the deaths of three youths.

In response to that disaster, the City of Redmond adopted Ordinance 2136, which added a "Hazardous Liquid Pipelines" section to the utilities chapter of the city's comprehensive plan. Among other provisions, the ordinance prohibits new "high consequence" land use that would put large groups of people at risk.

According to Steven Fischer, a senior planner with the City of Redmond, the modernization project at Rose Hill Junior High, which was constructed in 1969, does not fall under the ordinance's list of prohibited uses because the high consequence use is already in place.

“We would say that the land use is already there ... the school is a land use,” Fischer said. “That’s where we believe (there is) a misunderstanding in the construction of the code.”

Rose Hill Junior High is just several hundred feet east of Kirkland's boundary with Redmond along 132nd Avenue NE. 

Redmond resident Greyling Gentry, who lives near Rose Hill Junior High, said she believes the school district should not be allowed to build a new facility on the site, especially because the new building would increase the school's capacity.

"We were very stupid 46 years ago to allow this to happen," Gentry said in reference to the school's original construction. "We know better now."

The district's plans for the new school state the student capacity would increase from 856 to 900.

Although Fischer said the proposed school does not qualify as a new land use, Ordinance 2136 does state that expansion of high consequence land uses "shall at a minimum be designed to avoid increasing the level of risk in the event of a pipeline failure, and where feasible, reduce the risk."

School district spokeswoman Kathryn Reith said the plans for the new school take the pipelines into account and actually enhance the level of safety that is present at the site today.

As outlined in a memo from the district to the City of Redmond, the school district plans for the new building to be 34 percent farther away from the pipeline than the current facility. The new building would also have fire sprinklers, Reith said, which are not present in the current facility.

"Redmond has one of the toughest ordinances in the state," regarding the pipeline, Reith said. "We will be meeting those standards."

The school district will need to receive the city's approval before it can move forward with the project. Next week, city and school district officials will meet with representatives from Olympic Pipe Line Company, which is operated by BP Pipelines North America, to discuss how all parties can reduce risk of a pipeline failure during and after construction, Fischer said.

Once the school district formally submits its site plans, which Fischer expect to take place sometime in the next few weeks, the city will notify all property owners within 500 feet of the property and begin accepting public comment on the proposal.

The Redmond City Council will have the final say on whether the project is approved.