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| PG&E Pipeline Map |
More information can be found on the PG&E website.
The good news that I get from this is that PG&E has documentation on the section of the line that literally runs through my backyard AND they're planning to do high-pressure water testing of the line sometime this year. Of course, the fact that they HAVE the documentation doesn't mean the pipe is in good shape.
The bad news is that the reason they're pressure-testing this line is that it's of the same vintage as the pipeline that blew up in San Bruno last year.
An article in Sunday's SFGate paints a grim picture:
A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. gas pipeline running up the Peninsula into San Francisco has a long history of cracked and poorly constructed welds and even exploded once - but it's not the one that blew up in San Bruno last year.
The pipeline is known as Line 109, and it failed disastrously in 1963 in the Bernal Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. The blast injured nine firefighters and led to the heart-attack death of a battalion chief.
Documents contained in a mountain of just-released PG&E paperwork show that over the years, the company has found flawed welds up and down the 50-mile line. But there is no evidence in the records that in all that time, the company ever revealed the problems to state regulators.
What bothers me the most is that within San Francisco, the color-coding on the map indicates that the pipeline that is set to be tested is still being used at full pressure, while the pipeline that runs south of Geneva Ave into San Mateo Co. is being run at reduced pressure. The entire line is of the same vintage as the one in San Bruno that blew up last year, so why has the pressure only been reduced on part of line, and importantly for those of us in Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Bayview, Silver Terrace, The Portola, and Visitacion Valley, and NOT on our section within San Francisco County?
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