Apparently, set the task of running ‘cover’ or ‘damage control’ for the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline in light of the devastating explosion in San Bruno yesterday, The World penned a hasty and factual misleading article today. Starkly missing from the “we have more modern pipes and it won’t happen here” meme is any acknowledgment of the lives lost and the homes destroyed in San Bruno.

Nor is there any understanding of the difference between an odorized low pressure 12″ distribution line like NW Natural’s and a high pressure transmission line like the one that blew in San Bruno and is proposed for Coos County. The article implies that we are safe here in Coos County because our pipes are newer and we can use our noses.

Different equipment

On Friday, PG&E officials hadn’t yet determined the cause of the pipeline explosion in San Francisco.

But according to NW Natural spokeswoman Jenna Cooper-Gross, there are some significant differences between PG&E’s system in San Francisco and NW Natural’s here.

Because natural gas didn’t arrive in the Northwest until the 1950s, Coos Bay’s system is more modern than San Francisco’s.

And the system is constantly being inspected and updated.

‘We have removed all cast-iron pipe and replaced it with coated steel pipe,” Cooper-Gross said.

And pressure in the main 12-inch line is lower than it would be in a comparable line in San Francisco, because the Coos Bay line serves fewer customers…
…the first line of defense against a gas disaster is the human nose.

‘We tell people ‘Smell, go, let us know,'” she said.

Not withstanding the proposed transmission pipeline is not odorized until it connects in Malin, where California laws require such safety measures, residents in San Bruno had reported to PG&E the scent of leaking gas a week ago. The for profit company sent crews out and told residents to close garage doors but did nothing else to protect against a leak.

Additionally, PG&E claims the pipes are steel, not iron.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company issued a statement saying that a 30-inch steel gas transmission pipeline was isolated and gas flow stopped to the affected area.

PG&E is a co owner of the proposed Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline has a history of exploding lines.

It’s not the first time a deadly explosion on a PG&E gas line has devastated a Northern California neighborhood. On Christmas Eve 2008 an explosion killed a 72-year-old man in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova, destroyed one home and seriously damaged others.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s final report said PG&E used a wrong pipe to repair the gas line two years before the explosion. Rancho Cordova residents had reported of a gas smell in the area before the blast.

In response to the NTSB’s findings, the company said it had taken “extraordinary measures” to ensure a blast like that would never happen again.

Unless, of course, it is more cost effective to sacrifice a few customers in order to increase the bottom line… quarterly profits are critical to attaining the best credit ratings and borrowing rates.

A 2008, New Year’s Eve story in The World documented the difficulty of fighting structural fires in rural and forested areas.

CFPA’s firefighters aren’t trained nor equipped to battle structure fires. Nor could other local fire department have done any better — there aren’t any. The house and many others in Allegany aren’t included in any city or rural fire protection districts.

“It’s a way of life. That’s what you take with where you live,” Edwards said on Tuesday, adding he is aware CFPA’s hands are tied. “They’re not going to touch anything unless its burning trees.

“They wouldn’t let anybody die. But they have to go along with their bylaws.”

Even if Coos Bay fire trucks had responded, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference, said Fire Chief Stan Gibson. It would have taken too long to get there to save the structure and if they had gone, the city of Coos Bay would’ve been stuck with the bill.

“We would have been closest but there is no way we would have responded, because they are not paying for the service. They don’t belong to the taxing district,” Gibson said.

Imagine a fireball like that in San Bruno igniting thousands of acres of timber in a county as dependent upon timber as this one… San Bruno had resources we don’t have here and they still lost 40 homes.

Jody McCaffree responded in a query from The World regarding the explosion, “A true tragedy and a prime example of our concerns. An LNG accident and fire would be 100 times worse and we have so little resources here for emergency response. In the end it could wipe out everything and all for a foreign energy source we clearly do not need.”

The World has made no secret it supports the Jordan Cove LNG terminal and the supporting pipeline. They cite jobs and expected economic growth as the reasons for their support. The economic impacts of such a project, particularly one where the pipeline may stay empty for decades, doesn’t seem to be on the paper’s radar.

The World has demonstrated time and again, in my opinion, a lack of regard for human rights and social justice. The paper regularly resorts to name calling in its ‘editorials’ and the webmaster of the local forum proudly posted his contempt for the suffering of permanently disabled 9/11 responders in a recent thread.

Do they deserve special treatment because they were responders, I think so. Now do I think the government should foot the bill, nope. I don’t get free insurane, I work for it. My wife doesn’t either.

This alone should be indicative of how little regard the paper has for human life so implying to its readers natural gas transmission pipelines are safe when they are not comes as no surprise.

The paper sings the praises of a ‘fly by night’ mining operation with a history of permit violations in Georgia and Florida and a recent electrical shock injury being investigated by OSHA. Then it turns around and attacks hard working, educated and honest opponents of wetlands strip mining in a designated coastal zone concerned about quality of life and future economic prosperity in the county many have lived in for many more years than The World’s current editor.

The World can only conduct itself in this shabby fashion because readers allow it. Demand excellence and settle for nothing less. Write The World and tell them you are intelligent, possessed of critical thinking skills and expect quality. More importantly notify their advertisers you will not support them if they support mediocrity in journalism.

For now, plug your nose…