By Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky
San Francisco - The U.S. Department of Transportation
and one of its agencies is being sued by the city of San Francisco for
the deadly gas pipeline explosion that occurred two years ago.
According to its lawsuit, the city claims the department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
(PHMSA) “has been shirking its duty for over a decade, if not longer”
and has failed to properly maintain national safety standards and
adequate oversight of pipelines. The PHMSA is also accused of not
ensuring that pipelines in the state complied with federal safety
standards under the Pipeline Safety Act.
San Francisco authorities accuse PHMSA of creating “a regulatory
scheme that improperly delegates to gas pipeline operators
responsibility for the safe operation and maintenance of gas pipeline
facilities.”
The Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) pipeline explosion
occurred in San Bruno, where eight people were killed on September 9,
2010, and destroyed more than 100 homes. The lawsuit also cites another
deadly PG&E natural gas line explosion in Rancho Cordova in 2008 and
a non-lethal explosion in Cupertino in 2011.
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