Huge blast in San Bruno; neighborhood on fire

reply to post by GoldenFleece


There's human error somewhere in this whole mess..

"The industry always says that if you take care of pipelines, they'll last forever," Weimer said. [Weimer is the executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group]. "But what we see over and over again is companies are not doing that and corrosion and other factors are causing failures."

And once a high-pressure pipeline fails, he added, anything can trigger a deadly blast. A cigarette or rocks smashing as high-pressure gas shoots by. Even someone answering a cell phone can cause a spark, because it is battery-powered, Weimer said.

Source

The National Transportation Safety Board's final report said PG&E used a wrong pipe to repair the gas line two years before the explosion [in December of 2008] . Rancho Cordova residents had reported of a gas smell in the area before the blast.

In response to the NTSB's findings, the company said it had taken "extraordinary measures" to ensure a blast like that would never happen again.

Source


The previous odor, the sewer replacement, similar incidents from PG&E in the past (I only cited one of many) and the fact that its essentially a ticking time bomb once the pipe is compromised all suggest an unfortunate combination of circumstances that probably could have been avoided.


reply to post by dragnet53
It's doubtful that you'll enjoy my company over there as I don't see the mention of fireballs and meteorites in the news being anywhere near proof that they caused this. I prefer to use logic and reasoning instead of conjecture and irrationality to form my presumptions.

reply to post by GoldenFleece
Now that might explain the gas smell entering the sewer system. This find suggests that this specific transmission pipeline did have odorant in it, something I was trying to find information about but was having difficultly in doing so.

...PG&E inspected the gas line before and after the sewer work, and found no problems. The utility's crews checked for corrosion in November 2009 as part of a five-year routine checks of all high-pressure transmission lines, and they conducted more routine annual inspections in March 2009 and March 2010...

Source

By no means am I suggesting that they are not at fault, which evidence seems to be pointing towards, but simply supplying information. The article goes on to mention issues related to the inspection of the pipe, which may take up to 18 months, and that they'll be looking for signs of impact, fatigue or other reasons. There was also a "peculiar discovery" of an apparent welded seam that ran lengthwise which may have made it more vulnerable to leaks or corrosion. I'm unsure what's actually peculiar about that as I read elsewhere that larger diameter pipes such as this one are always welded. There's other relevant information at the link that's worthy to read for those of us who are following the developments.




I stumbled upon something of historical interest. The 1937 New London School explosion killed between 295 to 425 students and teachers, depending on the source, and is what apparently led to the mandatory odorant being added to natural gas. There's even a newsreel about the disaster from 1937 if you're interested. Source

Sep 13, 2010 6:06 pm PG&E Sets Up $100M 'Rebuild San Bruno' Fund

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. says it has set aside up to $100 million to help San Bruno, California residents recover from last week's natural gas pipeline explosion. The utility said Monday it will help residents with immediate cash payments and pay for costs that aren't covered by insurance. Residents will get $15,000, $25,000 or $50,000 depending on the damage to their homes.

also on this web page is a video of footage from a gas station surveillance camera of the blast.

cbs5.com...

barely l;egal?
3

San Bruno blast: PG&E backs bid to bill public

(09-13) 19:43 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- State regulators will take their first look today at a proposal backed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. that would require customers to pay all costs of catastrophic fires, such as last week's gas-line explosion in San Bruno, that exceed a utility's insurance coverage.
It's not clear whether the plan, if approved by the state Public Utilities Commission, would trigger a PG&E rate increase to help pay the utility's cost from Thursday's disaster. In a filing Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the utility said it has $992 million in fire insurance and a $10 million deductible, and "believes that most of the costs related to the San Bruno event will be covered."
Even if the company has enough insurance, however, the proposal would make rate hikes more likely if PG&E caused fires in the near future.

Passing on the buck to the victims.

Stay classy PG&E!

Well, here is what I heard on the local news.

That pipe was over 60 years old! Which is probably the average age if not older of much of the crumbling infrastructure in the US.

Also, PG&E charged their customers in a rate hike, for the work of replacing that pipe, but the pipe never got fixed and they spent the money on "other things" 5 million dollars.

not good PG&E, not good at all. Monopolistic crooks!

Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher
reply to post by mistafaz

 

i think it is time for america to start spending more money on infrastructure of america, rather than infrastructure in other countries.

I second that. I just read today that some gas line in America are over 120 years old and are still in use. They went on to say that over 40% of all gas, water, power and sewer pipelines are not on any maps. The maps have been lost over the years. Just how long until stuff like this start happing every day like clock work? If our infrastructure was that of an old house it would be comdemded.

I saw this article today disccusing the pipe that 'failed.

Here is an interesting quote from it:

"The line is like thousands of miles of pipe across the U.S. that was laid half a century or more ago, noted Theofanis G. Theofanous, a chemical and mechanical engineering professor at UC Santa Barbara.

How the country deals with that aging infrastructure "is a profound question," he said."

Hello, that is a pretty important question!!!

and a photo of the pipe from that article:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/111a972e348c.jpg[/atsimg]

and the link to the article:

www.mercurynews.com...