Post by Logan on Jul 1, 2016 23:20:15 GMT -6
PG&E records show pipeline that blew up had 33 previous leaks
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. records in 2009 listed 33 past leaks with unknown causes on the same aging gas pipeline that exploded in San Bruno in 2010, a PG&E engineer told a federal court jury Friday.
Called as a prosecution witness in PG&E’s trial on charges of criminal violations of pipeline-safety laws, David Aguiar testified that his job was to examine pipelines for external evidence of corrosion — a method that could not have detected internal welding defects that caused many leaks.
A flawed seam weld, on a line that company records had listed as seamless, ruptured in September 2010 in San Bruno, causing an explosion and fire that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. A subsequent federal investigation led to 12 felony charges that PG&E had failed to inspect and test its lines and keep accurate records, and a 13th charge that it had obstructed investigators by trying to conceal an alleged policy of exceeding legal limits on gas pressure in its pipelines.
Prosecutors contend PG&E sacrificed safety for profits by shunning high-pressure water testing of problematic gas lines in favor of cheaper detection methods, like the method used by Aguiar and his co-workers known as external corrosion direct assessment, or ECDA. He said he relies in part on the company’s computer database, and in part on staff reports, to identify areas that need inspection, and then checks to see whether pipes show signs of corrosion.
Read more: www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/PG-E-records-show-pipeline-that-blew-up-had-33-8337484.php
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. records in 2009 listed 33 past leaks with unknown causes on the same aging gas pipeline that exploded in San Bruno in 2010, a PG&E engineer told a federal court jury Friday.
Called as a prosecution witness in PG&E’s trial on charges of criminal violations of pipeline-safety laws, David Aguiar testified that his job was to examine pipelines for external evidence of corrosion — a method that could not have detected internal welding defects that caused many leaks.
A flawed seam weld, on a line that company records had listed as seamless, ruptured in September 2010 in San Bruno, causing an explosion and fire that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. A subsequent federal investigation led to 12 felony charges that PG&E had failed to inspect and test its lines and keep accurate records, and a 13th charge that it had obstructed investigators by trying to conceal an alleged policy of exceeding legal limits on gas pressure in its pipelines.
Prosecutors contend PG&E sacrificed safety for profits by shunning high-pressure water testing of problematic gas lines in favor of cheaper detection methods, like the method used by Aguiar and his co-workers known as external corrosion direct assessment, or ECDA. He said he relies in part on the company’s computer database, and in part on staff reports, to identify areas that need inspection, and then checks to see whether pipes show signs of corrosion.
Read more: www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/PG-E-records-show-pipeline-that-blew-up-had-33-8337484.php