Alameda

About 4.5 miles of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) natural gas pipeline segments in Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties in northern California may not have undergone integrity assessments prior to Dec. 17, 2007, as required by federal law, PG&E said in a letter sent to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Oct. 19. PG&E said it recently discovered that it does not have documentation to show that the high-risk segments — defined as having a threat caused by corrosion, excavation-induced damage or material defects — were properly assessed for internal corrosion threat. “Accordingly, PG&E is treating these segments as requiring baseline assessments,” PG&E said in the letter. CPUC’s safety staff has alleged that PG&E committed significant violations of pipeline safety rules, which staff claims contributed to a gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion two years ago in San Bruno, CA (see Daily GPI, Sept. 13, 2010). Last week, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell was appointed to serve as mediator in ongoing talks aimed at resolving a series of enforcement cases against PG&E stemming from the San Bruno blast (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17).