$163M fine urged for PG&E

Group says flawed records raise questions about pipeline safety

SAN BRUNO — A consumer group with a powerful government agency urged state regulators on Wednesday to impose a $163 million fine on PG&E because of alleged flaws in record keeping that raise safety questions about hundreds of miles of the utility’s natural gas pipelines.

The regulatory filing with the state Public Utilities Commission raises the specter of PG&E errors that triggered a fatal explosion in San Bruno five years ago.

“PG&E does not have reliable pressure test records for approximately 1,000 miles of its system” of natural gas pipelines, the Office of Ratepayer Advocates at the state PUC claimed.

Flawed record keeping, shoddy maintenance and lazy oversight by the state PUC, according to federal investigators, were among the key factors that caused a natural gas pipeline to explode in 2010. The lethal blast killed eight and wrecked a quiet San Bruno neighborhood.

“The public is still at risk,” said Joseph Como, director of the PUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates. “It is not known for certain what are the potential safety risks associated with these pipelines.”

At the heart of the filing by the Office of Ratepayer Advocates are questions about whether PG&E is properly analyzing the maximum allowable pressure on the hundreds of miles of pipelines and if the utility is complying with state and federal regulations for operating pressures on gas pipelines. The consumer group also claims that PG&E has yet to implement a comprehensive testing program for the sections of gas pipes that lack adequate records.

“PG&E’s misrepresentations regarding its maximum allowable operation pressure calculations may be masking safety threats that will materialize in the shorter term,” the ratepayers group warned in the filing.

The filing requested that the PUC order PG&E to prove that it should not be fined $163 million for an array of violations related to the gas pipelines in question.

“Keeping our customers and their families safe is our top priority,” PG&E spokesman Greg Snapper said. “The fact is that every mile of our gas transmission pipeline system operates in accordance with the federal and state safety regulations and the CPUC decisions on relevant proceedings.”

PG&E said it intends to pressure test every mile of its gas transmission system that had previously not been tested.