The deadly San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion on Sep. 9, 2010, should have been a wake-up call: The nation’s underground infrastructure is dangerously old and needs to be inspected.
No dice. Another explosion five months later in Allentown, Pa., killed five people, including an infant. Other non-fatal explosions have been reported since the San Bruno disaster; it’s dumb luck that no one died in one in Minnesota.
The private companies that installed, own and maintain these lines have no incentive to investigate or fix them. Doing so would require exorbitant sums of money, which would likely have to come from ratepayers, which in turn would result in a PR fiasco for the company. But which is more of a PR fiasco: A couple extra bucks on the bill or more dead bodies? Last time I checked, I’m still paying PG&E for my electricity, and it seems like my bills have been higher since San Bruno, probably to help pay for the fines being levied against the utility -- a dime of which will likely never be spent inspecting and fixing the problem lines.
Gas lines aren’t the only problem. A series of heavy rainstorms in Santa Cruz County caused a drainpipe in Capitola to rupture, blowing out a chunk of land in a mobile home park and flooding the Capitola Village, a tourist destination filled with shops and restaurants. Damage is estimated in the millions. People have been forced out of their homes. Businesses uninsured for flood damage will be screwed.
Of course, city governments are dead broke and they have much bigger fish to fry than some underground drainpipe -- like how they’re going to pay for the millions in unfunded pension liabilities staring them in the face for the next 40 years. But I would expect, even demand, that a public works crew could take a week inspecting the infrastructure and making repairs as needed. It would probably save public works officials a lot of heartache too -- but then, they only get noticed when disaster strikes.