The AP reports that those injured are employees for a subcontractor hired by Waco-based Brazos Electric Cooperative and were replacing power-lines poles when they hit the pipeline. Authorities are trying to determine if the gas line had been marked before digging started.

As natural gas operations have expanded in Texas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, risks associated with the drilling have increased significantly. State regulators in these states have linked drilling to several cases of drinking-water contamination, and authorities in Texas have raised concerns about air emissions from facilities, reports the Wall Street Journal. Federal statistics show that there were 47 pipeline incidents last year that caused death or serious injury across the nation, up from 40 in 2008. The majority of these incidents involved the small gas distribution lines which carry the gas to homes and businesses.

Second Texas gas pipeline blast kills two
The Associated Press has reported that two more workers were killed in Texas as a result of a natural gas line explosion; just one day after another explosion in Cleburne killed one and injured others. The second blast, just outside Darrouzett which is in northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle, involved a crew that was removing caliche (a material used in cement) for a dirt-contracting company.

Two men were killed and three others injured when a bulldozer struck a pipeline. The blast occurred just miles from the border, and one of the injured men was taken by helicopter to a Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma.