SF Sues Federal Agency Over Pipeline Oversight

Updated 7:44 p.m.

The city of San Francisco sued a federal pipeline safety agency in U.S. District Court today for allegedly failing to enforce safety standards for natural gas transmission pipelines.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration on behalf of San Francisco.

The agency is a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which was also named as a defendant.

The suit claims the agency has "abjectly failed" to oversee a state pipeline safety program.

Herrera charged in the suit that unless the agency corrects its alleged abdication of its duty, "it is not a question of if another pipeline will explode, but a question of when."

The lawsuit cites the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, in which eight people were killed, as well as two other explosions in Rancho Cordova in 2008 and Cupertino in 2011.

Under federal law, the U.S. secretary of transportation must prescribe minimum safety standards for natural gas pipelines and then oversee state agencies in enforcing those standards. In California, the state agency is the Public Utilities Commission.

The lawsuit charges that for at least a decade the federal agency has been shirking its duty of making sure the CPUC enforces the standards. It seeks a court order requiring the agency to carry out its enforcement duties.

Pipeline safety administration spokeswoman Jeannie Layson said she could not comment on the lawsuit because the agency does not comment on pending legal matters.

But Layson said that in general, "PHMSA is committed to its core responsibility to protect people and the environment.

"That's why we devoted hundreds of hours of staff support and technical expertise to the National Transportation Safety Board and the California Public Utility Commission to understand the San Bruno tragedy," she said.

"We will keep working with state and local officials and communities, including San Francisco, who share a common responsibility to improve pipeline safety," Layson said.

Herrera said three major natural gas transmission lines, including the one that exploded in San Bruno, run under densely populated business and residential areas of San Francisco.

The lawsuit alleges that the federal agency's failure to oversee pipeline safety has placed the lives and property of "hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in San Francisco at risk."

In a notice of intent to sue issued last year, Herrera originally said he planned to sue the state commission as well.

But Herrera said today that the commission is not included in the lawsuit because it has begun to take steps to improve its enforcement and regulatory practices.

—Bay City News