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alp227

(32,065 posts) Tue Aug 9, 2016, 07:06 PM Aug 2016

PG&E convicted of obstructing blast probe, breaking safety laws

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Nearly six years after a defective gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes, a federal court jury convicted Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Tuesday of obstructing the federal probe of the blast and of violating pipeline-safety laws both before and after the disaster.

The jury found PG&E guilty of five felony counts of knowingly failing to inspect and test its gas lines for potential dangers, in addition to the felony obstruction count. The jury acquitted the company of six other pipeline safety violations.

The explosion, early in the evening of Sept. 9, 2010, sent flames 1,000 feet into the air and devastated San Bruno’s Crestmoor neighborhood. In addition to the dead, 58 people were seriously injured.

The cause was a defective seam weld in a 30-inch transmission pipeline from the 1950s that PG&E charts had labeled seamless.

Read more: http://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/PG-E-convicted-of-obstruction-pipeline-safety-9132493.php?t=533c97b4d07d4f3860&cmpid=twitter-premium

4 replies

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PG&E convicted of obstructing blast probe, breaking safety laws (Original Post) alp227 Aug 2016 OP

So who goes to jail? Auggie Aug 2016 #1

It wasn't just a seam, it was a seam that was welded only on one side Warpy Aug 2016 #2

I'm shocked, just shocked! I mean.... 4lbs Aug 2016 #3

Great reggaehead Aug 2016 #4

Auggie

(31,207 posts)

1. So who goes to jail?

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Tue Aug 9, 2016, 07:46 PM

Aug 2016

Warpy

(111,383 posts)

2. It wasn't just a seam, it was a seam that was welded only on one side

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Tue Aug 9, 2016, 08:05 PM

Aug 2016

instead of both inside and outside the pipe. The inside weld had never been done on that section.

The pipeline, originally seamless, was rerouted in 1956 to fit a developer's plan for the area. PG&E used shoddy pipe and never tested it, grandfathering it in with the good sections of that pipe, laid in the late 1940s. The whole thing was a clusterfuck of corner cutting management and poor safety oversight by agencies.

I remember the NTSB safety report being infuriating reading.

PG&E had a long history of playing fast and loose with public safety. Most of the executives responsible for the worst of it have long since died in bed of old age.