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PG&E releases list of 100 highest-risk sites
By Pete Carey .. Updated: 09/20/2010

Slide shows .. one of three .. http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_16046482

Bowing to public pressure, PG&E released a long-awaited list of the "Top 100" riskiest natural gas pipeline segments and their locations along its 6,700 miles of gas transmission lines Monday.

A handful of the locations, some of which contain multiple segments, are in or near Silicon Valley, including the Peninsula, Fremont, Milpitas, Sunol and Livermore.

The California Public Utilities Commission asked for the list following the Sept. 9 San Bruno pipeline blast that killed four and left three unaccounted for. The utility said the document is used for planning purposes and shows problems ranging from corrosion to land issues, rather than problems that pose an immediate danger to the public.

PG&E President Chris Johns was grilled by reporters at a press conference about why the San Bruno line was not on the list.

He said the cause of the blast is still being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. But if there's an issue involving safety it is addressed immediately, he said.

"We don't put it on some list of 100," he said. If there's a safety issue, "we immediately send a team out to address that. Nothing is more important."

The transmission pipeline is divided into 20,000 segments, some a mile long, some only a few feet long. Johns said the segments were prioritized according to a complicated algorithm that takes into account population, age of the pipeline and other factors. A segment could be high on the list because construction is being done near it. When the construction is done, the segment moves down the list and another one moves up, he explained.

"In some instances, all we're doing is monitoring that segment of pipeline," he said.

There are two sites in San Jose, one near the Milpitas border and another near North First Street near Nicholson Lane. Milpitas has several segments near 237 and Ranch Drive. Other locations runs along Foothill expressway next to the Stanford University campus. and near Dumbarton and Donahoe streets in East Palo Alto.

Still another is at El Camino Real and Brittan Avenue in San Carlos. Another one runs through central Fremont. Four of sites were in Livermore, and two others were in Sunol.

The company set up a hotline for customers to find out if their home is near a transmission line. There is also a Web site containing maps and a list of the Top 100 segments.

The hotline number is 1-888-743-7431

The web site is www.pge.com/pipelineplanning.

Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_16127172?source=rss&nclick_check=1

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California blast site wasn't on utility watch list
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68K00920100921