guoxianteng

Brown signs activity assurance laws

Nearly one year afterwards a activity access destroyed a Northern California neighborhood, killing eight, Gov. Jerry Brown has accustomed new laws advised to bigger assure association and businesses from agnate disasters.

One of the laws, SB 216 by Accompaniment Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, requires automated shutoff or remote-controlled block sanitary valves be installed at pipelines beyond the state, including Long Beach.

The law added states utilities abreast convulsion accountability zones, like the Newport-Inglewood Line active below Long Beach and Signal Hill, be carefully monitored by account companies.

Long Beach is crisscrossed with dozens of afar of high-pressure pipelines agriculture one of the state's a lot of concentrated areas of ability stations, oil refineries and added businesses.

It's accepted the law will amount utilities in Southern California added than $1 billion.

However, the law doesn't affect Long Beach Gas and Oil, a accessible account operating some 900 afar of airy pipelines confined the city's homes and abounding abate businesses.

"The butterfly valve will not be appropriate for the Long Beach accustomed gas administration system," said Gas and Oil Director Chris Garner on Wednesday. "However, entities such as SoCal Gas that accept high-pressure chiral curve that bisect through Long Beach's boundaries will be appropriate to install these reversing valve."

The city-owned pipelines are carefully airy outlets, making

them beneath airy or acceptable to backfire - and accordingly exempted from the new rules.

In 86 years, the account hasn't had any aloft accustomed gas explosions, but there abide abounding beyond pipelines actuality operated by SoCal Gas Company that will be affected.

The city-limits curve are acclimated mainly to accommodate gas for heating or cooking, clashing the high-pressure activity that access in a adjacency of San Bruno, a Bay Area city, on the afternoon of Sept. 9, 2010, Garner said.

That adversity created an blaze that actively damaged or destroyed about 100 homes and led to aloft sanctions adjoin Pacific Gas & Electric, the activity owner.

But the city-limits and surrounding communities do lie aloft a arrangement of high-pressure curve agriculture anchorage industries, ability plants and about bisected of California's 21 oil refineries, amid aural or adjoining Long Beach's boundaries.

SB 216, accustomed by Brown on Oct. 10, states utilities beneath the administration of the CPUC accept to accommodate a valve area plan and maps to the bureau as anon as possible.

Garner expects costs for the new assurance net to be anesthetized assimilate barter over a aeon of several years. The utilities charge CPUC approval to accession rates.

"It has been estimated that the amount in Southern California abandoned will be aloft $1 billion," Garner said. "The clandestine utilities will accomplish every accomplishment to access approval from the California Accessible Utilities Commission to balance most, if not all, of these costs through the utilities' ante to their barter over a aeon of time."

Installation of the assurance valves allows utilities to accidentally or automatically cut off food if problems arise.

Currently, federal law alone requires chiral valves.

"The ambition is that these valves will acquiesce operators of the chiral curve to be able to added absolutely and bound ascendancy and arrest the breeze of accustomed gas through these curve during times of emergencies," Garner said.

"The legislation is applicative alone to chiral pipelines ... operating at 20 percent or greater of their minimum crop strength, a action of operating pressure, aqueduct bank array and animate strength," Garner said. "LBGO does not accept any pipelines in its arrangement that accomplish anywhere abreast these altitude and, therefore, this valve claim does not affect to LBGO's system."