A day before the four-year anniversary of a deadly natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Mayor Jim Ruane said Monday morning that he expects to have repairs in the community mostly completed by next year.
The Sept. 9, 2010, explosion of a PG&E gas line killed eight people, injured 66, destroyed 38 homes and severely damaged 17 others. In the last four years, the city has been working on rebuilding the neighborhood's infrastructure and over the next 18 months expects to complete work rebuilding streets, sidewalks, sewer systems and parks.
The city has already completed $15 million in infrastructure repairs, Ruane said.
Meanwhile, 24 homes have been rebuilt, 10 new homes are expected to be under construction over the next year and all 17 damaged homes have been repaired and are reoccupied, Ruane said. "It'll be beautiful when it's done," Ruane told reporters at City Hall Monday morning. "But we want to do it once and we want to do it right."
From the beginning, PG&E has called the explosion and fire a tragic accident. Ruane said it was the consequence of deliberate decisions the utility company made over decades. “Both the CPUC judges and the U.S. attorney concluded that the explosion on PG&E’s Line 132 was the result of deliberate and intentional misconduct by PG&E over several decades,” Ruane said.
A pair of independent audits found PG&E had diverted more than $100 million from gas safety and operations over a 15-year span and spent the money on other things, including stockholder profits and executive bonuses.
“It is time for PG&E to do the right things and stop calling this an accident, and accept the level of penalty as proposed,” Ruane said.
A spokesman for PG&E responded by once again calling the explosion an accident. “This was a very tragic accident,” spokesman Greg Snapper said, “and it’s something that we’ve been dedicating ourselves, earning the trust of everyone in the community.”
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The utility has been spending heavily on television ads show casing its employees who stress their commitment to the community. San Bruno’s mayor cited the ads Monday, saying it’s never been about the utilities workers. “They’re doing a great job,” Ruane said, “but unfortunately a lot of that has to do with decisions made higher up, years ago.”
Ruane also reiterated his criticism of a record $1.4 billion fine and penalty levied against PG&E by the California Public Utilities Commission last week for the San Bruno explosion. He said the $950 million in fines to be directed to the state's general fund should be used instead for gas
pipeline safety.
Ruane did not say whether the city will appeal the CPUC's decision. PG&E announced its own appeal last week.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
