PG&E To Miss New Disclosure Deadline On Pipeline Welds
SAN BRUNO (CBS SF) - Pacific Gas and Electric has revealed in a regulatory filing that it would miss a June 20 deadline to turn over records on welding defects in its urban gas transmission lines.
The disclosure comes as PG&E is running full page ads in Bay Area newspapers apologizing for last September's fatal San Bruno explosion and outlining what changes have been made so far.
Peninsula Assemblyman Jerry Hill was frustrated by utility's latest filing, given that the California Public Utilities Commission has already fined PG&E for not presenting all of those records in March.
>>Photo Gallery: San Bruno Explosion
"Unless we have a good understanding of the condition of those welds, whether they've had defects in the past, we can't have a safe system."
Weld flaws are being looked at in the Sept. 9 explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.
KCBS' Holly Quan Reports:
The PG&E filing said the search for missing records has interfered with carrying out high pressure water testing on its 5,700 miles of pipe, so the documents scattered over various district offices could not be collected until June 2012.
The company's assertion that the records were used only on an as-needed basis that makes consolidating them difficult is just an excuse, Hill said.
"I don't think they know where their records are, and certainly don't know what's in those records," Hill said.
He said the utility should hire whatever staff are necessary to sift through the paperwork and quickly provide records that should have been systematically organized for the last 55 years.
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