State inspector warned PG&E of safety risks in '09

California regulators warned Pacific Gas and Electric Co. last year that persistent safety problems in its gas distribution system were putting the public at risk, according to a strongly worded letter obtained by The Chronicle.

The letter from a senior gas safety inspector suggests the relationship between regulators and the utility leading up to the deadly Sept. 9 pipeline explosion in San Bruno was more contentious than top state officials have portrayed publicly.

It also refers to cases in which the utility was apparently ignorant of key aspects of its own system, a finding similar to what federal investigators looking into the San Bruno disaster concluded in an interim report released Tuesday.

"It is apparent to us that the failure of PG&E to provide adequate procedures, or the failure of PG&E personnel to follow established procedures, has resulted in safety risks that would most likely not have been created" if the utility had abided by the law, Sunil Shori, a safety inspector with the California Public Utilities Commission, wrote in a Feb. 13, 2009, letter that The Chronicle obtained under the state public records law.

Shori wrote that PG&E was having trouble following federal law requiring that workers who check for gas leaks be properly trained. He also said the utility was not making sure it was complying with the law when it linked up gas lines with different allowable pressures, and sometimes was unaware it was doing so.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/15/MNMJ1GQ0UK.DTL&ao=all

The letter: imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2010/12/16/ba-PG_E_Letter_B_0502712501.jpg