Pieces of dynamite discovered near gas pipeline

About 15 residents from eight homes in the Tipanuk area were evacuated for approximately five hours Thursday night after residue and pieces of an old stick of dynamite, which may have been there since the 1950s, was found underneath a natural gas pipeline.

"It probably just sort of disintegrated over the years," Elmore County Sheriff Rick Layher said.

As part of standard operating procedure, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were notified.

The dynamite residue was later removed and successfully detonated by the Boise Police Bomb Squad, which was called in to assist by the Elmore County Sheriff's Department. Fire and ambulance crews from Mountain Home stood by as a precaution. Members of the county COPs (Citizens on Patrol) program set up roadblocks in the area.

The evacuation involved roughly a square mile from the incident site, which was located near the intersection of Ditto Creek and Desert Duck roads.

The dynamite residue was found under the pipeline, which is owned by Williams Northwest Gas, by a worker who was performing routine maintenance on the 22-inch-wide pipeline, removing the old paint coat and putting a new one on, while also inspecting the steel of the pipeline.

In the course of his work, at at little over 4 p.m. Thursday, he discovered what Williams Northwest Gas District Manager Gordon Hamilton described as some dynamite paper, possible residue and evidence of a drill hole. He said it was most likely left over from when the pipeline was laid in 1955.

Authorities were notified immediately and a precautionary evacuation was ordered by the Elmore County Sheriff's Office, which called in the Boise Police Department bomb squad to deal with the ordnance residue. At shortly after 9 p.m. the bomb squad used half an ounce of det cord to blow up the residue. "It sounded about like a shotgun going off," Hamilton said.

He apologized to the residents of the area affected by the evacuation, and praised the Elmore County Sheriff's Office and the Boise bomb squad for their "excellent professionalism."

Layher noted that the company had offered to pay for any motel or meal costs for those evacuated, but most simply went to friends' houses.

As part of the company's safety precautions, it bled some gas from a point on the pipeline in the 5100 block of Canyon Creek and at a location on Simco Road, to depressurize the pipeline, which normally operates on about 85 psi of pressure.

The pipeline is a major transmission line for natural gas through this area, and the company supplies the gas to a number of customers, including Intermountain Gas.

Hamilton said the incident did not disrupt service to customers because a parallel line was able to pick up the extra load.

He said following an inspection of the pipe and area Friday morning, he expected the line to resume service by Friday afternoon.