Explosion. Fire. Chaos. Red tape. Confusion. The explosion has been a taxing event for the city of San Bruno and frustration is rising amongst the residents. 

The general public of San Bruno has displayed their frustration not just at PG&E but at the confusion from having the city take so much damage. Residents have shown up to several town hall meetings since the explosion to have their questions answered by officials. 

The most recent town hall meeting showed just how frustrated people are getting. A resident asked about cost cutting by PG&E for maintenance to the electrical lines and if similar cuts have been made in relation to gas lines in the area. 

The Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations, Ed Salas was present at this particular town hall, answering specifics to questions. He claimed that PG&E has not cut costs in terms of any type of maintenance to which the man in the audience shook his head and said, “He’s a liar.” 

One thing that got the audience’s attention at this particular town hall was that there are apparently automatic emergency shutoff valves for high transmission gas lines but they are not required therefore not installed on these particular pipes. Instead two manual shut off valves had to be activated. 

“Having automatic shut off valves on transmission lines would make a lot of sense,” said Speier. “But it’s not mandatory for retrofitting of older pipelines– is it required for new pipelines?” In response a PG&E representative nodded. “So it’s not required for any pipelines throughout the system, and there’s no federal regulation on that at all? Seems like an area we might want to work on.” 

If you’re interested in making sure that automatic emergency valves are added to existing pipelines, you can contact the CPUC or NTSB and tell them that you feel there should be emergency automatic shut off valves on high transmission gas lines.