Jeff Shultz is angry about the “disaster waiting to happen” in his farm field northeast of Lawrence.

For nearly three years, Shultz said, he has been trying to get Williams Pipeline Co. to bury an exposed 3-foot section of gasoline pipeline that runs through the field.

“They’ve done nothing but give me lip service,” Shultz said.

His anger and concern intensified last week after more than 8,000 gallons of gasoline from a pipeline belonging to Williams spilled into a field north of Lawrence. A farmer ruptured the shallow pipeline while plowing. No one was injured in that accident.

Shultz is worried he may not be so lucky.

Leo Haynos, chief of pipeline safety for the Kansas Corporation Commission, said Shultz’s worry was justified.

“He has something to be concerned about,” Haynos said, adding that if gasoline from last week’s rupture had spewed a different direction and contacted a hot surface on the tractor, an explosion would have been almost certain.

Though there are parts of the country with more buried pipelines, Haynos said there were a considerable number in the Lawrence area because many lines converge at terminals in Kansas City.

After a nearby farmer ruptured a pipeline that spilled 8,000 gallons of gasoline onto a field last week, Jeff Shultz knew he had to get something done about the disaster

“If you look at a pipeline map, as you get closer (to Kansas City), you’d see more,” he said.

Shultz said the exposed pipeline was on a hillside and the soil that covers it has washed away. It is in the area of North 1802 and East 1700 roads west of U.S. Highway 40 near the Douglas-Leavenworth County line. He has been farming the land several years.

Three times since he noticed the exposed pipeline, Shultz said, he has called Williams. Three times the same representative has been sent to examine it.

“The first time he said he didn’t think it was anything to worry about,” Shultz said. “He keeps saying he’ll get back to me, and nothing ever happens.”

The most recent visit was about two months ago, Shultz said. That time two people from Williams examined the line.

The pipeline is goes through a hay field on Shultz’s land.

“We use some pretty big pieces of equipment in that field,” Shultz said. “A tractor could run over (the pipeline) and could rupture it.”

No one at Williams headquarters in Tulsa, Okla., was available to comment on the complaint late Tuesday. Local representatives of the company declined to comment.

KCC regulations require gasoline lines to be 30 inches below the surface of the ground when installed. But there are no requirements that depth be maintained, though erosion often brings pipe to or near the surface.

Shultz said he was aware of the regulations.

“They don’t want to use any common sense,” Shultz said of the pipeline company. “I’ve told them that if they’ll just get me the dirt, I’ll do it myself.”

Meanwhile, a cleanup continues at the site of the Dec. 10 pipeline rupture. The land is owned by Roger Pine of Pine Family Farms.

A spokesman with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Tuesday a large amount of soil was being removed and water in a nearby well was being tested because of concern the water table may have been contaminated.