Posts Tagged ‘ San Bruno ’

Do the Residents of San Bruno need Erin Brockovich?

September 17th, 2010. By LucyC

We all read with horror the accounts of the massive San Bruno explosion on September 9th that rocked an entire California suburb, killed four people (at last count), vaporized 38 homes, damaged a further 120 and pretty much laid waste to the surrounding 15 acres of land. Residents were ordered to evacuate, many lucky to have escaped with their lives. 

The explosion took place at dinner time, 6:24 pm, on a Thursday evening. It was caused by a rupture in a natural gas line that ran underneath the community. According to reports, the residents had complained to the utility company that they had smelt gas prior to the explosion—days prior in some cases. 

You may be interested to know that the utility company that owns the gas pipeline is none other than Pacific Gas and Electric, or PG&E. Ringing any bells? Remember Erin Brockovich? She took PG&E on over the deadly toxic waste called hexavalent chromium that the company was illegally dumping and which, in turn, was essentially poisoning residents in an area of southern California. People were dying of cancer, in fact. Brockovich, immortalized by Julia Roberts in the blockbuster movie of the same name, discovered that PG&E was trying to buy land that was contaminated by hexavalent chromium. To make a long story short—Brockovich and the people she represented won the day—but it took some doing. 

Now, to be clear, I’m not saying that the San Bruno explosion was caused by some kind of oversight, deliberate or otherwise, by PG&E, but if the company had received reports Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Erin Brockovich, Gas Explosion, PG&E, San Bruno
Posted in Environment | 1 Comment »

BP Spill, San Bruno Fire, Fracking…Time to Stop Blind Faith in Gas

September 12th, 2010. By AbiK

As I read the accounts of those living in the area affected by the San Bruno gas fire, one phrase keeps coming back to me: “I didn’t know…” While the specifics of each “I didn’t know” or “had I known” vary, they all stem from one thing—we—homeowners and residential gas consumers—don’t really know what the heck we’re sitting on top of when it comes to underground gas lines.

In an odd way, the BP oil spill has been our wake-call—albeit at a terrible price. But, thanks to BP, we now question how gas is obtained and distributed. Sure, the folks living in the heart of the Marcellus Shale region have long been sitting on pins and needles wondering what hydraulic fracking means to their water supply, for example, but that type of regional concern wouldn’t have gotten some of the more national press coverage it has recently received had it not been for BP.

Ditto the San Bruno gas fire. Sure, it would’ve made the headlines, but, as with other localized gas pipe explosions of years gone by, it would’ve been reported as a tragic explosion affecting a very small area in the scheme of things. There may have been a few localized investigative reports—but that would’ve been about it. Now, however, people are starting to question a few things about the US natural gas industry. Things like, just how safe is it? And things like, what happens to San Bruno in the aftermath of the gas line rupture—did any gas leak into the ground? are the remaining pipes in the area safe? what about those reports of a gas smell? and on and on…

I’ve posted about hydraulic fracturing—you can read more about that and the concerns folks have about it from upstate New York to West Virginia here on LawyersAndSettlements.com. It only took a few reports about livestock becoming sick from leaks coming out of nearby fracking operations to make me raise an eyebrow and join the anti-fracking side. Of course, the gas companies continue to tout its safety—and, I suppose when you look at aggregate numbers, it is relatively “safe”—but would you want your kids drinking water that potentially contained chemicals (or gas?) involved with the fracking process? Didn’t think so…

So, back to the “I didn’t know”.

A report the other day in the PressDemocrat.com talks about how we really don’t know Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AGA, BP, fracking, hydraulic fracturing, hydraulic-fracturing-water-contamination-epa-fracking-hydrofracking, natural gas, San Bruno, San Bruno Gas Fire
Posted in Environment | 5 Comments »