Fire crews search through the rubble of - Media (1 of 74) San Bruno explosion toll rises to 4
Infrastructure, you say? Ask the city of San Bruno why we need it | Crooks and Liars
- The ruptured main belongs to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
- The pipe that ruptured was installed in 1948
- Residents in the area had smelled gas for 3 weeks. When it was reported, some were told to shut their garage doors; others were told not to worry about it. (note: those tweets were people reacting in real time to TV reports and interviews)
- People are still missing. Expect the death toll to rise.
- The force of the explosion also stopped the water supply, making it much more difficult to fight the fire.
- PG&E's president was interviewed, but managed to cover himself and duck any hard questions in the process about whether reports of a gas leak had not received priority attention.
- At the time of this writing, it is reported that 45 homes have been lost with hundreds more damaged.
A neighborhood exploded. Just like that. It was there one minute, gone the next, apparently the victim of a deteriorating 62-year old cylinder in the ground that wore out, blew out, and exploded after rupturing the ground above it. That cylinder is just one of many old, deteriorating lines.
And right now, early in the game, we're left with questions about whether that pipe was properly maintained, whether the right amount of attention was paid to reports of a gas leak in the area, and whether PG&E has adequately invested in keeping their equipment safe and up-to-date.
This is a company that spent $46 million dollars to buy a California ballot initiative in the primary to keep municipalities from maintaining their own utilities.
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How's that other energy company doing since they were entirely left to their own devices to clean-up a gulf they ruined?
Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor : NPR:
"Scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are finding a substantial layer of oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Their discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn't simply evaporate or dissipate into the water — it has settled to the seafloor."
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Hows about instead of Obama splashing around in the gulf surf with his family and eating one or two fried oyster sandwiches for a day or two, hows about he move the freakin' White House to the Gulf and swim, with his family, daily in the Gulf and eat the seafood every goddamn day for the next 10 years.
You can bet your sweet ass there'd be some 'change' for the gulf if Obama was faced with poisoning his family on a daily basis.
You can bet your sweet ass there'd be some 'change' for the gulf if Obama was faced with poisoning his family on a daily basis.
Group finds contaminated oysters, despite state, federal assurances | wwltv.com | WWLTV.com News:
"NEW ORLEANS -- Sampling by environmental groups has found oysters contaminated with oil along the Louisiana coast befouled by the BP PLC oil spill, a finding that casts doubt on statements by state and federal officials that all seafood tested here is safe to eat.
Batches of oysters were sampled on Aug. 2 and 3 near the mouths of the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers and laboratory tests revealed the animals were tainted by oil, according to Wilma Subra, a well-known Louisiana chemist working for environmental groups. The oysters were obtained from a reef and an old crab trap, she said."
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Swim in this everyday, Obama.
EXCLUSIVE: Tests find sickened family has 50.3 ppm of Corexit’s 2-butoxyethanol in swimming pool — JUST ONE HOUR NORTH OF TAMPA (lab report included) | Florida Oil Spill Law:
"“Our heads are still swimming,” stated Barbara Schebler of Homosassa, Florida, who received word last Friday that test results on the water from her family’s swimming pool showed 50.3 ppm of 2-butoxyethanol, a marker for the dispersant Corexit 9527A used to break up and sink BP’s oil in the Gulf of Mexico."
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A bit of unintended humor from the PG&E tragedy:
San Bruno explosion: Families fear worst
As the human cost mounted, residents were also coping with the stress of not knowing what happened to their pets. San Bruno animal control officers set up a station at the shelter to try to help.
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