2026-04-06

Pipe Bomb

3.3 million miles of pipeline under your feet. Some were installed before your grandparents were born. We grade every operator, track every explosion, and tell you exactly what's buried next door — with government data and no mercy.

Consumer-facing US pipeline safety accountability intelligence — operator safety report cards, state-level infrastructure age scorecards, incident cause analysis, enforcement action tracking, proximity risk alerts, and weekly "blast reports" translating PHMSA's 50+ years of incident and infrastructure data into gorgeous, opinionated, data-journalism that answers the question every homeowner near a pipeline right-of-way is asking: *Should I be worried?*

Niche Explored

US Pipeline Safety Accountability Intelligence — translating 50+ years of PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) incident, enforcement, and infrastructure data into consumer-facing, location-aware data journalism. 3.3 million miles of pipelines, aging infrastructure, operator accountability, and “is a pipeline near me safe?” answers.

Existing Competition

PHMSA’s own data portal (portalpublic.phmsa.dot.gov) — raw government data, ugly Oracle BI interface, impossible for consumers to navigate. No narrative, no context, no maps worth looking at
National Pipeline Mapping System (npms.phmsa.dot.gov) — shows where pipelines are by zip code, but no incident overlay, no safety grades, no historical analysis
Pipeline Safety Trust (pstrust.org) — advocacy org, publishes annual reports, but not data-driven interactive content. Think-tank style, not consumer journalism
ProPublica — occasional pipeline investigations (great but sporadic, not automated or continuously updated)
Reuters/AP wire — cover major explosions, then move on. No sustained tracking
Local news — covers individual incidents but no context (is this operator a repeat offender? How does this compare?)

The Gap: Nobody is taking PHMSA’s incredibly rich, publicly downloadable data (incident reports since 1970, enforcement actions, mileage data, infrastructure age, operator annual reports) and automatically generating:

Operator safety report cards
State-level pipeline safety grades
“Aging infrastructure near you” proximity alerts
Incident trend analysis with cause breakdowns
Enforcement action accountability tracking
“This pipeline was installed in 1955” infrastructure age visualizations

Data Sources Found

Primary (All Free, Public, Downloadable)

PHMSA Incident Data — https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/distribution-transmission-gathering-lng-and-liquid-accident-and-incident-data
- Tab-delimited text files, downloadable ZIP archives
- Data since 1970, includes: location, operator, cause, fatalities, injuries, property damage, commodity, volume released
- Updated as operators submit reports (30-day requirement)
PHMSA 20-Year Trend Reports — https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/pipeline-incident-20-year-trends
- Serious incidents (fatalities + hospitalizations)
- Significant incidents ($50K+ damage or major releases)
- Filterable by state, system type
PHMSA Pipeline Mileage & Facilities — https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/pipeline-mileage-and-facilities
- Infrastructure data since 1984: miles by material, diameter, age decade
- State-by-state breakdowns
- Annual reports from operators
PHMSA Enforcement Data — https://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/enforcement-data/
- Enforcement actions: Corrective Action Orders, Safety Orders, Notices of Probable Violation, Warning Letters
- Operator-specific enforcement history
- Civil penalty amounts
- Exportable data
PHMSA Pipeline Replacement Tracking — https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline-replacement/pipeline-replacement-background
- Cast/wrought iron pipeline inventory by state (the most dangerous — installed 60+ years ago)
- Bare steel pipeline tracking
- Decade-of-installation breakdowns
- DOT’s “Call to Action” progress tracking
National Pipeline Mapping System — https://www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov/
- Geographic location of gas transmission & hazardous liquid pipelines
- County/zip code searchable
PHMSA Flagged Files — downloadable incident datasets with additional fields for replicating trend analyses

Secondary Data Sources

EPA Envirofacts API — https://data.epa.gov/efservice/ — cross-reference pipeline facilities with environmental violations
NRC (National Response Center) — https://nrc.uscg.mil/ — hazmat spill reports often pipeline-related
NTSB Investigation Reports — https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/ — major pipeline accident investigations
EIA (Energy Information Administration) — https://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/data.php — natural gas infrastructure and consumption data
Census/ACS — population density near pipeline corridors for risk exposure estimates

SEO Analysis

Keywords:
- “pipeline safety near me” — low competition, high intent
- “pipeline explosion [state]” — news-driven spikes
- “PHMSA pipeline incidents” — virtually no consumer content
- “natural gas pipeline safety” — dominated by industry sites
- “pipeline accident data” — wide open
- “aging pipeline infrastructure” — timely, underserved
- “pipeline operator safety record” — ZERO consumer-facing content
- “[operator name] pipeline safety” — untapped long-tail
Search volume signals: Every major pipeline explosion (San Bruno 2010, East Harlem 2014, Merrimack Valley 2018) drives massive search spikes with nowhere good to land
SEO opportunity: Massive. Government data exists but nobody is making it human-readable. Every pipeline incident creates a search moment with no good destination

Communities

r/pipeline (small but active)
r/energy (250K+)
r/infrastructure (growing)
Pipeline Safety Trust community
NTSB safety advocates
Environmental justice communities near pipeline corridors
Landowner groups (pipeline easement concerns)
First responder/emergency management communities
State pipeline safety office networks

Image/Graphic Feasibility

Excellent. This niche is PERFECT for auto-generated graphics:
- State-level choropleth maps (incident rates, infrastructure age)
- Operator report card infographics
- Timeline visualizations (incidents by decade)
- Cause breakdown donut/pie charts
- Infrastructure age bar charts (decade installed)
- Pipeline proximity maps
- “Scoreboard” comparisons between operators
- Trend line charts (20-year incident trends)
All data is numerical/categorical = ideal for automated chart generation
Can use D3.js, Chart.js, or Observable Plot in the static site build