Regulators on Friday accused one of California’s largest utilities of falsifying safety documents for natural gas pipelines for years following its criminal conviction and multimillion-dollar fine for a pipeline explosion that killed eight people near San Francisco.
The California Public Utilities Commission said an investigation by its safety and enforcement division found Pacific Gas & Electric Co. lacked enough employees to fulfill requests to find and mark natural gas pipelines.
Because of the staff shortage, PG&E pressured supervisors and locators to complete the work, leading staff to falsify data from 2012 to 2017, regulators said.
The company ‘had common knowledge among its supervisors that locators falsified data,’ the commission said.
A massive fire from a pipeline explosion roars through a neighborhood in San Bruno in this September 9, 2010 file photo
‘Utility falsification of safety-related records is a serious violation of law and diminishes our trust in the utility’s reports on their progress,’ commission President Michael Picker said in a statement.
‘These findings are another example of why we are investigating PG&E’s safety culture.’
PG&E said it has hired more employees and improved its pipeline tracking system.
‘We’re committed to accurate and thorough reporting and record-keeping, and we didn’t live up to that commitment in this case,’ utility spokesman Matt Nauman said in a statement.
A U.S. judge fined the utility $3million after it was convicted of six felony charges for failing to properly maintain a natural gas pipeline that exploded in 2010 and wiped out a neighborhood in suburban San Bruno.
A U.S. judge fined the utility $3million after it was convicted of six felony charges for failing to properly maintain a natural gas pipeline that exploded in 2010 and wiped out a neighborhood in suburban San Bruno
Regulators also fined PG&E $1.6billion for the blast.
‘This is the period immediately following the 2010 San Bruno gas explosion and fire that resulted in eight fatalities, numerous injuries and damage to property,’ the commission said in its report.
‘This commission would expect that after such a tragedy, caused by multiple proven violations of law, PG&E would have sought to vigorously enhance and increase its effectiveness in all aspects of its gas safety.’
The investigation was forwarded Thursday to a judge, who will hear testimony on the findings and will allow PG&E to provide evidence that it didn’t violate safety laws.
The utility that provides service to millions of people throughout Northern California also is under scrutiny for its role in igniting wildfires.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection found that PG&E equipment was responsible for starting 16 wildfires last year.
While a cause has not yet been determined for the massive fire that wiped out the town of Paradise and killed at least 86 people last month, PG&E equipment is being scrutinized.
The company on Tuesday said its workers found a bullet-riddled power pole, downed tree branches and damaged towers at sites where the Camp Fire wildfire is believed to have started.
Pacific Gas & Electric on Tuesday told regulators in a letter that the utility had a transmission line outage near the town of Pulga in Butte County around 6am on November 8 – the day California’s most deadly and destructive wildfire started
PG&E made the revelations in a letter to California Public Utilities Commission, as it faces lawsuits alleging that its equipment started the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise and killed at least 86 people
PG&E faces lawsuits alleging its equipment started the destructive wildfire on November 8.
PG&E made the revelations in a letter to California Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday.
The finding of bullet holes in PG&E equipment and felled tree branches could limit the utility’s liability in lawsuits, shifting blame to another party and away from its alleged faulty equipment.
PG&E said it had a transmission line outage near the town of Pulga in Butte County around 6 am on the day the fire started.
Shortly after the outage, a PG&E employee called 911 at 6.15 am to report seeing flames around the tower. Camp Fire started at 6.33 am that day in that same area, according to officials.
When inspectors went out to investigate the outage site, they found a broken hook and a ‘flash mark’ on a high-voltage tower, suggesting a power line broke free and made contact with the tower, the letter states.
At another location a few miles away in Concow, workers found a fallen power pole riddled with bullet holes after responding to an outage that occurred at 6.45 am also on November 8. Also in this area, workers found fallen tree branches covering wires.
PG&E said when workers were sent out to inspect the outage site where flames were seen in Pulga, they found a broken hook, and pieces of a suspension insulator and a transposition jumper, according to the letter.
The equipment had become separated from an arm of the tower and was left hanging PG&E’s letter states.
At a separate site in Concow, workers investigating an outage that occurred around 6.45 am on November 8 found a pole on the ground ‘with bullets and bullet holes at the breakpoint of the pole and on the equipment,’ according to the letter.
Workers also found tree branches on top of power lines in the area.
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