PG&E employee questioning the integrity of a gas line

By PETE BENNETT - Contra Costa Watch EMAIL
Phone: 510-460-5641
Posted: 10/05/2013

San Carlos: Emergency operations center opened after city declares 'state of emergency'

By Katie Nelson San Jose Mercury News

POSTED:   10/05/2013 05:25:57 PM PDT | UPDATED:   A DAY AGO

RELATED STORIES

• Oct 5:
• Document: PG&E says pipeline is safe
• Document: Letter from PG&E to San Carlos city manager
• Oct 4:
• San Carlos: Judge orders PG&E to shut down natural gas pipeline

SAN CARLOS -- An emergency operations center opened Saturday, just one day after city officials declared a state of emergency in San Carlos following the release of company emails that showed a PG&E employee questioning the integrity of a gas line that runs under a heavily populated section of the city.

City officials said the center was opened Saturday around 11:30 a.m. in a "limited capacity." A half-hour later, the city manager, city attorney, police and fire officials and representatives with the city's Public Works Department spoke via conference call with representatives from PG&E and the state and county offices of emergency services to discuss the current status of Line 147.

The safety of line 147, a 20-inch, 4-mile long pipe that runs from Interstate 280 through San Carlos to Highway 101, primarily under Brittan Avenue, was called into question after the city received documentation Thursday that showed PG&E officials questioning whether the pipeline had been properly maintained and inspected. One employee states that after reviewing records, inspectors believe the pipe dates to 1929 and had found external corrosion.

A San Mateo County judge on Friday ordered a temporary injunction and requested the agency shut down the line immediately. Instead, PG&E reduced the pressure in the line by 20 percent Friday night and told city officials Saturday that they were evaluating the potential impact to customers should the line be shut off completely.

The company's assessment would be completed Monday, city officials said in a news release, but that did not quell Mayor Bob Grassilli's bewilderment with PG&E going against a court order.

"How can a company which claims safety is their top priority continue to ignore a court order issued to protect the public?" he said in a statement. "It's 80 degrees outside, PG&E customers in the Bay Area aren't going to be without gas if line 147 were shut down. They shut down the line for several months in 2011 without impacting customers."

A Nov. 14, 2012, email from PG&E noted: "A recent leak repair effort on L-147 ... has revealed pipe specification(s) that are inconsistent with the current data in the PG&E system."

Another employee expressed serious reservations about the pipe's safety in a Nov. 17, 2012, email. "After thinking about this some more, I have some concerns about this pipe," the employee wrote. "Are we sitting on a San Bruno situation? ... Is the pipe cracked and near failure?

"I don't want to panic people but seems like we should consider this and probably move the pipe up ... for replacement."

PG&E released a statement Saturday reiterating that the pipe was safe as well as noting it was abiding by the judge's orders. Officials said they were going to cut gas flow to the line in a "safe and effective" manner. A complete gas shut-off could happen as early as Monday or Tuesday, the utility added.

"We are working diligently to comply with the court order to safely and effectively shut off service to the pipeline," said Nick Stavropoulos, executive vice president of PG&E. "However, in the meantime, I want all customers to know that this pipeline has been demonstrated to be safe using the leading and most universally accepted standard for assessing the integrity of operating pipelines. Under no circumstances would we operate this pipeline in an unsafe condition and any suggestion to the contrary is simply wrong."

On Sept. 9, 2010, eight people were killed and dozens of homes burned after a 30-inch, high-pressure pipe running under the Crestmoor neighborhood in San Bruno tore open along a faulty seam, causing a massive explosion and fire.

Follow Katie Nelson at Twitter.com/katienelson210.

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A year later, sabotage of key fiber optic cables remains a mystery

As Silicon Valley slept a year ago tonight, the wireless wonderland in which it existed — a dream world where mobile devices made instant communication not only possible, but almost unavoidable — disappeared suddenly, like Alice, down a hole.

In this case, it was a manhole in South San Jose, which someone breached in the middle of the night and cut fiber-optic cables critical to a vast communications network. When residents of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties awoke the morning of April 9, it was to a world completely remade with the stroke of a chain saw.

Despite a reward of a quarter-million dollars and investigations by San Jose police, the Santa Clara County sheriff and the FBI, no one was arrested for cutting the lines, which belonged to AT&T. It now seems unlikely anyone ever will be prosecuted, an outcome Jennifer Ponce, coordinator of emergency services for Morgan Hill, called “depressing.”

Equally troubling is the likelihood that it will happen again, unless Silicon Valley tech giants, which rely on the underground network of cables and wires to go on reinventing the future, make a large capital investment in upgrading the grid.

“I don’t think you can ever prevent something like that from happening without a major infrastructure investment from the private sector,” said Dave Snow, Santa Clara County logistics section chief.

Someone undoubtedly will have to make a large capital investment
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to assure that all the grids — electric, transportation and communications — aren’t knocked out for days during such natural disasters as earthquakes. Cash-strapped city and county governments would like to shift the burden to companies that profit from those systems.

“The one thing you can’t do in government nowadays,” Snow said, “is buy things just in case. A large part of our effort is going toward pre-disaster contracting. The first day or two you’re on your own, but you know that support is on its way.”

One company that has made a significant investment in keeping the communications network running smoothly is Cisco, which dispatched its Darth Vader-like NERV (Network Emergency Response Vehicle) to Morgan Hill last year, allowing that city to quickly restore its 911 service. “It’s got cameras, satellite reconnections, and devices that allow you to cross-connect radio frequencies,” said Bert Hildebrand, Santa Clara County director of communications. “They can restore telephone and Internet, which is a capability we don’t have. It’s very cool.”

Cows & colts

Having learned its lesson the hard way, AT&T has already begun making one improvement to the system. The company actually had backup fiber-optic lines, right next to the bundle that got cut. “We had the protection, but it was in the same manhole,” said AT&T spokesman John Britton. Since then, the company has devised a “different geography” for its backup lines expected to be ready by midsummer.

Though the sabotaged wires belonged to AT&T, the incident also knocked out a bundle of lines the company leased to Verizon, sole provider of landline service in South County. Additional cuts were later discovered to wires at two locations in San Carlos, and at Hayes Avenue and Cottle Road in San Jose. Verizon lost service to more than 52,000 households, including disruptions to cellular and Internet service.

Verizon has
beefed up its fleet COWs (cell on wheels) and COLTs (cell on light truck) to handle such emergencies in the future. And other companies have made similar investments.

Wireless communication had become like the air we breathe — all around us and always available — and then it was gone. Landlines went dead, cell phones didn’t work and the Internet flickered off in Morgan Hill, Gilroy and San Jose. It took more than 24 hours to fully restore service, a disconcertingly dark day during which the entire communications grid’s vulnerability to a single point of failure was exposed.

“Wireless calls or data connections are only wireless between the device and the nearest antenna,” explained Heidi Flato, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless. “From there, they travel over fiber optic systems, through switches and other facilities. Basically, your cell phone is only as good as the network it’s riding on.”

Sabotage was immediately suspected because AT&T’s contract with the Communications ers of America had expired only four days before the lines were cut. After the incident, AT&T spokesman John Britton noted that opening the manhole cover where the fiber optic lines were buried required a special tool.

To pull off such a caper, said Dave Snow, the county’s logistics section chief, “You kind of have to know what you’re doing. Nobody would stand in water and operate a chain saw on electrical lines unless they knew exactly what they were doing.”

Investigation ends

AT&T offered a reward of $100,000 for information leading to arrest and conviction, and the next day raised it to $250,000, one of the largest bounties for an act of vandalism in the company’s history. “That is a huge, huge sum of money,” Britton said, “so we obviously were hoping that would be sufficient motivation to generate a lot of positive leads for the police.”

When the FBI joined the investigation, authorities even considered a legal provision — enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — which made vandalism against a telecommunications network “an act of terrorism,” according to Britton.

He said AT&T’s asset protection division worked closely with police. “We definitely wanted to see whoever committed these terrible acts prosecuted and convicted,” Britton said. “It went far beyond an attack on the network. It was an attack on the people who live in the communities served by the network.”

And then, on Sept. 1, the criminal investigation by San Jose police ended almost as suddenly as it began.

That was the same day the Communications Workers of America approved a new contract with AT&T. “I’m not going to speculate about the incident,” CWA communications director Candice Johnson said in an e-mail. She denied any culpability by union members.

The communications giant’s spokesman refused to speculate on a connection between the simultaneous ending of union strife and the criminal investigation. “All those labor things are in the rearview mirror,” Britton said simply. “From what I know, we cooperated 100 percent with the police department.”

AT&T has bolstered its security, attempting to limit the damage that any future attack could cause, but not even a company of its scope can post a guard over every manhole. “Customers today are demanding connectivity everywhere,” Britton said. “Not just in homes and businesses, not just to make a phone call, or get an e-mail, or send a text message. It’s a tweet, or they want to check in on Facebook, and you now have millions of people who are conditioned to do that. When it’s taken away, it affects them in a big way. And we don’t like it when that happens.”

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FAA public affairs manager Ian Gregor Nunn and Branagh Crashes

By PETE BENNETT - Contra Costa Watch EMAIL
Phone: 510-460-5641
Posted: 09/27/2013

===========================================

In 2008 days after the Eric Nunn crash I called the FAA as I'd spoken to Nunn on the phone
I know Peter Branagh who lived in Danville and had family around the corner from my house iat 161 Valle Vista Danville but he's another Pilot killed in 2012. 

That's one too many of many connections and on September 27th 2013 someone tried to run me over.  Just who are these people and their  

9:45 p.m. update: Plane crash near Paradise kills two working for PG&E

By NICOLE GERSPACHER — Paradise Post

POSTED:   08/13/2013 11:55:43 AM PDT

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Plane crash near Paradise kills two working for PG&E

Contra Costa Watch - Tragedies, Arson and Corruption 

 by Pete Bennett Posted: 09/27/2013

9:45 p.m. update: Plane crash near Paradise kills two working for PG&E

By NICOLE GERSPACHER — Paradise Post

POSTED:   08/13/2013 11:55:43 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

The wreckage of a plane that crashed this morning into Hamlin Canyon,... (Bill Husa/Staff Photo)

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PARADISE -- Two people died in a plane crash Tuesday morning south of Neal Road that triggered a vegetation fire.

PG&E spokeswoman Jan Morris said Tuesday evening that the aircraft was an AA Aerial Services and Frontine Energy scout plane doing contract work for PG&E.

The plane was doing routine patrol from the air on a natural gas transmission pipeline located in the area.

The crash about 11:30 a.m. was in Hamlin Canyon, about six miles southwest of Paradise, according to Cal Fire-Butte County.

• PHOTO GALLERY of the incident

• WATCH VIDEO of incident

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Chris Haile said the plane was completely gone due to the fire by the time his crew got down to it.

"The pilot was killed and we have no idea who he was; what the airplane was, we have no information on that," Haile said.

Morris said PG&E's prayers are with the families of the victims.

The plane was identified as possibly a "small two-seater aircraft" by Cal Fire Deputy Fire Marshal Matt Damon.

The FAA did not have any identification on the crashed plane or the occupants inside as of deadline Tuesday.

The circumstances of the crash are unknown as well, FAA public affairs manager Ian Gregor said.

"Firefighters were going in to the crash site on ATVs earlier in the afternoon to try to get a data tag or N-number off the plane," he wrote in an email.

The fire burned up the canyon toward Neal Road, sending smoke billowing up into the air. Neal Road was closed for a while.

By 3 p.m. the fire was contained at 21 acres. It did not threaten any homes. Six engines, four water trucks, a bulldozer and four hand crews fought the fire on the ground. Two air tankers, a helicopter and a spotter plane assisted from above.

Bob Smalley, 50, of Paradise, witnessed the plane crash, and was the first to call 9-1-1 and report it, he said.

"I was coming north on 99 and saw a plane kind of circling around off to the right," Smalley said. "Then I saw it do just a spiral straight down and I was shocked because planes don't do that. No more than a minute or so after I saw the smoke."

He did not recognize the plane. He said it was red or orange and white and was a smaller plane.

Officials do not have any lead on whose plane it was, Haile said. The Chico, Paradise and Oroville airports have confirmed the plane was not based at those sites.

---

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Asiana Pilot Blinded - It was deliberate - I survived this by sheer luck

Contra Costa Watch 

By: PETE BENNETT

Email:

Phone: 510-460-5641

Posted: 07/11/2013

Protect My Sons • Related Searches: Arson / Blinded 

======================================================================

The pilot flying the plane, a veteran captain still in training on the Boeing 777, reportedly told Korean investigators that a bright flash temporarily blinded him at an altitude of about 500 feet.Officials are investigating whether the pilot of the Asiana Airlines jet that crashed into the runway at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday had been blinded seconds before by a flash of light.

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National Transportation Safety Board director Deborah A.P. Hersman said pilot Lee Kang-kook shared "some of that information" with the U.S. investigators interviewing the pilots. When asked it if was a laser, she said investigators weren't yet sure. 

"We really don't know what it could have been," Hersman said. "We need to look into it. We need to understand what he's talking about."

At the same altitude, the pilots realized the jet was coming in too low, and tried to correct their path. The speed of the airplane also slowed significantly at that altitude, from about 134 knots (154 mph) at 500 feet, to 118 knots (136 mph) at 200 feet, to 112 knots (129 mph) at 125 feet.

During the briefing, Hersman outlined other aspects of the ongoing investigation, including a deeper analysis of the plane's automated flight systems to determine how they interacted, whether the pilots used them properly or if they malfunctioned during the landing.

Noting that the Boeing 777 has some of the most sophisticated automation in the sky, Hersman said the systems, such as the auto-throttles, have many settings and can be coupled with one another.

Investigators found that in the 2-1/2 minutes before the crash, multiple auto-throttle modes and multiple auto-pilot modes had been set.

"What was the final mode the airplane was in?" Hersman asked. "We still need to validate the data. We need to make sure how the devices were set and what the pilots understood the modes to be."

The evacuation of more than 300 people aboard the jetliner did not begin until 90 seconds after the aircraft came to rest and only when fire was spotted by a flight attendant, federal investigators said.

Getting everyone out of the wide-body 777 late Saturday morning also was complicated by two escape slides that inflated in the cabin, pinning down two crew members, as the plane careened down Runway 28L.

The accident killed two teenage girls from China who were coming to Los Angeles for a summer camp. Scores more were injured.

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NTSB: Open Letter To Director Deborah Hersman

By PETE BENNETT  
Phone: 510-460-5641
Posted:  
Updated:07/11/2013

 
======================================================================
Letter Pending 

The goal of this will be to draw parallels to my incidents to the San Bruno Pipeline Case, my 2004 arson case and my attorney who's was an arson victim in 2004 then over to how a retired San Francisco Police Lieutenant fits into the Piedmont Lumber Fire that appear to fit other fires in the east county.  

The July 20th 2011 hit and run was the final straw as that's when another coincident became targeting.   

I need work hire me? It appears that PG&E would rather let me starve then deal with their vendors unpaid bill. It was a big ass fire that should be the wake up call of the century.  

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Watch This: This almost happened to me on 680

ALAMO CA:

Date: Mid-August 2004

Location: Northbound 680

Responding Agencies: San Ramon Fire and California Highway Patrol

Event: Arson Fire of F-250 Truck where mechanic said he was right behind me. The owner is a Mormon from Alamo 1st who repaired the truck. He's got Pete Amnesia, can't remember the fire, can't remember the name of the mechanic, can't remember anything and wasn't too interested in hearing about my sons or the fire. The sad part is my ex-wife who has custody knows about this fire and she knows everyone at the this ward.




Alamo 1st Ward Bishop's Office

2949 Stone Valley Rd. A

Alamo CA




925-837-2629








Suspect: Mechanic

Gregs Muffler


Address: 3329 Mt Diablo Blvd, Lafayette, CA 94549


Phone:(925) 283-0323


This mechanic stated he was behind my truck and witnessed flames shooting back over 100 feet, he watched firetrucks arrive, he saw CHP who didn't think it was arson - even though flames were shooting back over 100's feet it wasn't good enough, then I thought I was lucky, now I'm screaming foul as weeks later





Danville Building Inspector Attacks and nearly kills resident - you didn't know about it did you




Apparently Mr. Collins had dual jobs and worked across the street? At Greg's muffler, Greg is a Danville Mormon, he can't remember the mechanics name, nor can he say much about Gary Collins. I'm sure that Collins attended PHE, knows Lynds, knows the mechanic, knows Greg, and they all know the Danville Town Council, many live walking distance to Tanabe's house who knows officer Jason Nunn, who's brother was killed with BART Officer Craig Wilson who knows several other now deceased BART officers, who know me, and they seem to know people near the Piedmont Lumber Family, they know investigators on the Vitale case, who lived down the road from Wild Wood Acres where this Photographer person is as suspect in my July 20th 2011 hit and run who happens to be friends with members of the Danville Council whose peer died from a bacterial infection which nearly killed me in 2005.




We all know Tanabe, and Butler walked into my house days after the 2004 Danville assault connected to the Danville mom spent 100K fighting charges from Hayward that she had attempted to hire a hit man, whose husband won one of the few large jury awards but one of the deceased BART officers was about to come forward as a whistle blower in his new job at an important agency.



http://contracostawatch.blogspot.com/2012/12/danville-building-inspector-gary-vinson.html?q=Collins









RICO - the best part about operating alone - is it only takes two to make a RICO Conspiracy

10 Cardozo L. Rev. 2167 (1988-1989) When Will the Idling Statute of Limitations Start Running in Rico Conspiracy Cases; Jancko-Baken, Ellen

Also, violations of state law which constitute “racketeering activity” under the federal RICO Act must be punishable by imprisonment for more than one year.  The offenses falling under this category include murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, and dealing in narcotic or other dangerous drugs[ii].  Courts have held that the list of state law crimes that can constitute “racketeering activity” under RICO is exclusive[iii].

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