NTSB calls San Bruno pipeline explosion 'A failure of the entire system'

WASHINGTON - In a scathing critique, federal investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in an Aug. 30 hearing blamed Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for what one official called "baffling" mistakes that led to a gas pipeline explosion in September 2010 that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The NTSB also said PG&E exploited the lack of monitoring by regulators, who mistakenly placed "blind trust" in the utility.

The report made on Aug. 30 concluded that poor pipeline welds went undetected because of a lack of inspections by the company and inadequate monitoring by state and federal regulators. The utility also lacked a workable emergency response plan that board members said could have helped to prevent the devastation in the city of San Bruno.

"This represents a failure of the entire system - a system of checks and balances that should have prevented this disaster," said Robert L. Sumwalt, an NTSB board member. "The seam weld may have been the technical reason, but this was an organizational accident."

PG&E may be assessed $26 million fine for 2008 natural gas explosion

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - State regulators might finally penalize PG&E $26 million for a deadly pipeline explosion that occurred nearly two years before the blast in San Bruno.

On Christmas Eve 2008, a pipeline exploded in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova, killing one person and injuring five others. A federal investigation into the incident revealed that PG&E was in violation of several safety requirements.

Despite those findings, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) only opened a penalty case against PG&E in December 2010, after the San Bruno explosion had brought pipeline safety under close public scrutiny.

Now, CPUC staff has announced a settlement that would fine the utility $26 million in shareholder funds for its failure to comply with safety regulations. The settlement must still be approved by the full commission.

PG&E admits it can't fill California PUC order for pipeline records

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Pacific Gas and Electric Co. told California regulators on April 21 that it will never find documents for some of its older gas pipelines, and that if the state doesn't accept "assumptions" about some pipes, the company will have to spend five years shutting them down and hydrostatically testing them.

In a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E said it cannot satisfy a state order to come up with "traceable, verifiable and complete" records on all 1,800-plus miles of its pipeline in and around urban areas.

The commission issued the order after it was revealed that PG&E's records incorrectly described as seamless the San Bruno pipeline that exploded Sept. 9, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes. Federal metallurgists have concluded that the pipe failed at a seam weld, but PG&E never conducted inspections that might have detected the problem weld.

PG&E couldn't come up with records for more than 600 miles of gas transmission line by the state's March 15 deadline and has proposed that it pay a $3 million fine while it produces additional documentation by August. The utilities commission is still considering the deal.

In its April 21 filing, PG&E called the order for complete records "unprecedented" and said that full documentation would be a "very difficult, if not infeasible, threshold to achieve."

Before the March 15 deadline, the company enlisted hundreds of employees to search through more than a million boxed documents, looking for records to back up PG&E's stated safety levels on pipelines.

Instead of complete records, PG&E said, it wants the commission to accept what amount to educated guesses about some pipelines.

PG&E says its inaccurate records did not lead to San Bruno blast

SAN BRUNO, Calif. - The gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in San Bruno would have happened even if Pacific Gas and Electric Co. had kept accurate records of the line, the company told state regulators on April 19.

The rupture on the 30-inch transmission line that caused the Sept. 9 explosion took place at an incomplete weld on a pipe seam, metallurgists with the National Transportation Safety Board have concluded. PG&E's records showed that the pipe had no seams, and it never conducted inspections that might have detected a flawed seam weld.

However, the type of weld that ruptured does not have a record of failing, PG&E told the state Public Utilities Commission. As a result, it said, the company still would have picked an inspection technique best suited for finding the problem that PG&E considered the greatest threat to the line - corrosion - and not flawed welds.

"The question becomes whether the correct seam type information ... would have changed PG&E's assessment methodology" and "potentially prevented the Sept. 9, 2010, San Bruno pipeline rupture," the company said. "The short answer to that question is 'no.' "

PG&E hikes cost of San Bruno disaster to up to $760 million

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - PG&E on Feb. 17 said its costs from the Sept. 2010 San Bruno natural-gas explosion could exceed $760 million by the end of this year - $150 million more than previous estimates - and that it will probably want some of that expense passed on to consumers.

The San Bruno disaster killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

PG&E officials stressed that the full cost of the San Bruno calamity won't be known until federal and state regulators have determined the accident's cause, the numerous lawsuits stemming from the blast are resolved and regulatory authorities clarify what improvements the utility will have to make to its gas system.

Some of those additional costs are expected to include the installation of automatic or remote shut-off lines for the gas transmission lines, since PG&E's crews had trouble shutting off two manual valves feeding gas to the San Bruno fireball. Based on PG&E's previous estimates, those valves could cost as much as $450 million.

According to PG&E's filing on Feb. 17, its costs through this year could total $400 million for liability claims and $363 million for other expenses, many related to improvements on its gas-line system and the search for records.

Much of that expense should be covered by the company's insurance policy, they said. But Kent Harvey, PG&E's chief financial officer, suggested that the company may ask the California Public Utilities Commission to pass on some of the cost to PG&E customers.

Of particular concern to the company is the cost it may incur from having to conduct expensive new tests on its pipelines. Because the SanBruno pipe ruptured at a pressure level below what PG&E had thought was safe, the commission fears the pressure level for other PG&E pipes also may be too high. It has ordered PG&E to produce inspection and other documents verifying that the pressure levels on its various gas lines are appropriate.

PG&E has assembled a small army of hundreds of workers to search for those records.

Federal investigators cite defective welds as likely cause of fatal San Bruno blast

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - A federal report issued on Jan. 21 says that the natural gas pipe that ruptured in San Bruno on Sept. 9, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes, had numerous flawed welds. According to some experts cited, the pipe did not meet even the welding standards in place when it was installed in 1956.

The metallurgical report shed new light on the blast, identifying for the first time a particular seam weld as the site of the rupture. It found that the weld was half as thick as it should have been.

The problem seam weld in San Bruno, the NTSB report notes, developed a crack "consistent with ductile overstress from the root of the weld." A surge eventually ripped apart the line at the seam at a time when pressure ran up to 386 pounds per square inch. The pressure surged because of a malfunction of the pipeline system's power source before the San Bruno explosion.

The report noted that there were several circumferential, or girth, welds, and all of them had similar flaws. One of them also failed in the accident, but the report did not specify the cause of the "overstress" on those welds.