HomeMy WebLinkAboutREDmarxcommunicationslion on •s hard to obtain
RECEIVE D
SEP 21 201 E
SLO CITY CLER K
industry have made it ex-
tremely difficult for home-
owners to learn the locatio n
of pipelines and any history
of inspections and repairs
information that safety ad
vocates say could save lives.
In the wake of a deadly
pipeline blast earlier this
month in San Bruno, and se-
riot's leaks in Michigan and
Illinois, the secrecy sti r
°ounding the nation's 2 .5-
million-mile network of gas
transmission line s is facing
criticism.
Please see PIPELINE, A S
BY GAItANCE Beane
Terrorism fears have made it difficult fo r
m-""'"' BRon homeowners to find out location of pipe s
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISC O
lie records can reveal a lot explosive natural gas run s
aboutaneighborboodewho's beneath the neighborhood,
not paying their taxes, where it's a different story .
sex offenders live, whether a
Citing fears that terrorists
houseforsale haslead paint : might try to blow up them -
Yet if a 2 IS-foot-wide pipeline lion's natural gas pipelines ,
O ng highly pressurized, federal regulators and th e
From Page AI
Many of these tightlipped
practices sprang up..,after .
the Sept l1, 2001,attacks,
out of fear-of another cata -
strophic attack .Before
9/1l, for example,there
were no restrictions onwho
could look at maps of the
nation's gas pipelines, but
since then, full access to th e
information has been limit-
ed to industry and local,
state and federal officials .
The federal government
also has asked utilities to
remove maps of pipeline in-
frastrudurefrom t teirweb-
sites.
But lawmakers,safety-ad-bled four people,injured
Federal regulators an d
vacates and independent ex dozens and destroyed nearly the industry within the last
pests say crucial informa- 40 homes - remains under year were admonished b y
lion is being denied to the investigation, and it is not the NationalTransportation
The AP was able to locat e
public, includ'uigemergency dearwhatproblemsshowed Safety Board after a
workers who must respond up in prior inspections of the propane explosion nea r
when something goes 44-year-old Pacific Gas and Carmichael, Miss, in 2007 .
System,
bwrong. They say homeown- Electric Co. line.
A pipeline ruptured be -
ers, for example,; have no What is known is that cause of a -wed weld an d
clue to whethercorrosionis many in San Bruno first sent a huge fireball over the industry . But the maps
eating away the pipeline learned of the existence of hurries, killing two people do not say which pipeline ssteel under their feet
the pipeline Sept. 9, when and injuring seven.
are high risk, nor do the y
"Large natural gas trans- gas leaking from the 30-
Key emergency dispatch- include the pipelines' i n
mission pipelines are the inch line ignited and sent a ers had not known about the spection histor y
equivalent of burying dynafireball shooting hundreds pipeline; nor were spokesman D a
mite underground," said of feet above the San Fran-trained hi how to resp o
they
nd, anon
PIIM
Hill
A
said the agency's
Paul Blackburn, apublic in- cisco suburb . Among those the NTSl3 said . Also, the vie public disclosureprogran i sterest lawyer in Vermillion ; previously in the dark was tirnsand ofher whose ho g s- a "work in progress" an dSJ), who has worked on o il San Bruno Mayor T>m Ru- es were destroyed lead been more informnatioi will he dis-
nd gas pipeline matters . one . He said he is learning left out of publicmailings of- -1
in the t tune_ Fo rvesarpublic needs to know "more and more, day by feting pipeline safety taps .
-tow, he said, -a format cc -ives are being put at risk days about the pipeline .
Th e NISB said tbaf
Frif to guest trader the eeda of
Ind property is at risk "
It was not the first time a rat authorities lead known of Information Actt must be `:
The cause of the San community 'was caught the presence of the pipe, si bnnitted tore fullinspe c3runa explosion --=which tragically liaarvare .
_they could have immediately teen results are disclose d
Petroleum Institute and di d
not immediately receive a
response.
e was able to locat e
numerous gas line map s
from the National Pipelin e
Mapping a we site
created by the U.S. Trans-
portation Department and
Pipeline ['Sl ; SAN-BRUNO P)PE NOT ON'HIGH-R1S1(UST
SAN FRANCISCO (AP}
We were not aware of
Asectlonofnatural -gcas
anything In this-particula r
plpeline t b t e iplbde€l
area that would have tnel
south of Sap Francisco -daes
the criteria tapair on tha t
not appear on Pacific Gas
t st"Johns-saide
and p ectraGCa`s lint o€itS
California utility .
I00 i iskiestpi
Iasi on Monday
segments,the utility
warnedthat peoplesliould
company said-Me nday
not eat the pipelines on th e
PG&president Chris
t
list andtt het they are-no t
Johns said the pipeline
considered at-risk or
segment that'll]p-
grid
dangerous
exploited-beneath a San To view the list,-9s to
Bruno neighborhood Sept.9
httpJfiinyurfcorn/topl00pip a
di p
he
; not~rrariantinclusionon
Moskofthe-segments'arein '
#trst
-the Pay Ai ea.
.,
mission and the America n
evacuated the area as th e
propane leaked, and they
could have warned people.
against doing anything tha t
might ignite the cloud of gas .
The Associated Pres s
asked the federal agenc y
that oversees the nation's .
pipeline network - th e
Pipeline & Harnrdous Ma-
terials .Safety Administr a
lion -:for a list or map of
the nation's pipelines, in-
cluding those deeme d
"high risk" because they are
in highly populated areas .
But the agency said that i n
formation was not available .
The AP sought the sam e
information from the Cali-
fornia
Utilities Com-
NISI 15fEl'61'6ft1`f 1
~cmp Ti -n p
-a