Speier Calls for 'Immediate Action' Over PG&E's Pipeline Work

Congresswoman Jackie Speier today demanded further explanation from PG&E and the California Public Utilities Commission following a San Francisco Chronicle story that revealed problems with PG&E's testing of its pipelines last year.

In the story, the Chronicle reported that two veteran welders had submitted a filing to the CPUC on Monday saying that PG&E's high-pressure water testing of 150 miles of gas transmission pipeline had serious safety problems. The tests were ordered after the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion because PG&E lacked proper records of its operating pressures on vintage lines that had similar characteristics to Line 132, the pipeline that exploded in the Crestmoor neighborhood.

The welders also said the utility's old gas transmission lines were plagued by corrosion, flawed welds and shoddy repairs, according to the Chronicle.

In response, Speier issued the following statement:

“Immediate action is required by the CPUC and PG&E to confirm or to reject the notion that newly tested PG&E pipelines may have been improperly welded, or that corrosion exists in some transmission lines. The filings from two veteran welders who reported these potentially dangerous pipeline conditions to the CPUC yesterday require proof positive that the public is not at risk. I, for one, won’t accept statements from a private contractor that there is no risk to safety. I have asked the CPUC and PG&E to tell me what they propose to do and when they propose to do it. This is an unfortunate development in the process of assuring us that transmission lines have been fully tested and deemed safe.”