The natural-gas pipeline explosion that killed at least four people and destroyed 38 homes on Sept. 9 in San Bruno, Calif., has prompted the California Public Utilities Commission to come down hard on the pipeline owner, San Francisco-based PG&E.
In a letter to PG&E President Christopher Johns, the agency directed the utility to take a number of remedial measures: conduct an integrity assessment of all gas facilities near the blast site; perform an “accelerated” leak survey of all transmission lines at heavily populated locations in PG&E’s central and northern California service territory; prepare a plan to inspect the utility’s entire 6,438-mile natural- gas transmission pipeline system; and preserve all records related to the maintenance or modifications performed by PG&E and its contractors over the past 10 years on the San Bruno line.