PG&E Wants Pipeline To Remain Beneath Mountain View Middle School
MOUNTAIN VIEW (KCBS) - Officials with the Mountain View Whisman School District said they are disappointed Pacific Gas and Electric plans to remove only one of the two natural gas pipelines running beneath the Crittenden Middle School soccer field.
The utility said it wants to re-route Line 109 to Middlefield Road so that it only passes beneath a portion of the school's parking lot, while leaving intact a portion of Line 132 that exploded in San Bruno in 2010.
KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:
"We would prefer that the line be moved. We're not insisting that the line be moved," said Superintendent Craig Goldman, adding that the original PG&E easement on the land predates Crittenden's existence.
"It's not as though the school was built without knowing about the pipelines," he said.
Nevertheless the Mountain View Whisman school board must decide whether to allow a new easement under the parking lot, a plan not favored by Goldman or the trustees.
PG&E spokesman Brian Swanson said hydrostatic testing done in August showed the Mountain View segment of the pipeline that cast the safety of the entire PG&E network into doubt was still intact.
Swanson said water running at a pressure 1.5 times greater than the maximum natural gas pressure was forced through the pipe for eight hours in order to test its integrity.
"We know now that we have a significant margin of safety built into our gas operations on Line 132 in Mountain View," he said.
Goldman and other school board members said they preferred having both lines moved entirely. A PG&E spokesman told The Mountain View Voicethe company would have to re-route the lines elsewhere if the school board does not approve the plan presented to the school board on Nov. 3.
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