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4. REVISIONS AND OMISSIONS TO THE AGENDA <br />Chair Olson advised that Item 11, Matters for Commission Information, was being <br />moved forward on the agenda. He indicated that Commissioner Blank has some <br />questions regarding gas lines running through Pleasanton and invited the City’s new <br />Fire Chief to speak on the matter. <br />11. MATTERS FOR COMMISSION'S INFORMATION <br />Fire Chief James Miguel stated that he was recently appointed Fire Chief for the <br />Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department (LPFD). He indicated that he spent 27 years in <br />fire service in the City of Modesto, the last eight years as Fire Chief. He introduced <br />Deputy Fire Chief Joseph Rodondi, who would present some information as well as <br />diagrams. <br />Chief Miguel thanked Commissioner Blank for the invitation to discuss the issue of gas <br />lines that run through Pleasanton, particularly in the wake of the San Bruno incident. <br />He stated that it is unknown why the incident in San Bruno took place, and it will likely <br />be some time before the autopsy on the pipe is completed. He indicated that one of the <br />things that brought this issue to the forefront in Pleasanton, Livermore, and other areas <br />in Alameda County was a report done by PG&E to the Public Utilities <br />Commission (PUC) in 2009, when they were trying to justify a rate increase in order to <br />do some capital improvements and replacement on some of their infrastructure. He <br />noted that in that report, there was reference made to pipes as examples of problems <br />PG&E wanted to improve, and one of those pipes, which runs through a portion of <br />Livermore, skirts the City of Pleasanton, heads over into Sunol, and on to Fremont, had <br />been identified as one of those of greatest concern to PG&E, and, therefore, their desire <br />to replace it. <br />Chief Miguel then briefly read the following section of the report entitled, “Pipeline Risk <br />Management Program”: <br />“In 1998, PG&E developed a Pipeline Risk Management Program to assess the <br />risk of every segment of gas transmission pipeline within PG&E’s system. The <br />Chief of the Utilities Safety Branch at the California Public Utilities Commission <br />approved the program on April 20, 2000. Pipeline risk is determined by <br />assessing two factors: (1) probability or likelihood of failure; and (2) local <br />consequence of the failure. The probability of a pipeline failure depends on <br />various physical characteristics such as diameter, wall thickness, operating <br />pressure, year installed, pipeline condition reports, method of construction, type <br />of coating, depth of cover, vulnerability of third-party damage, and environmental <br />factors such as proximity to earthquake faults and potential landslides. Factors <br />used to determine consequences include population density, impact zone of the <br />pipeline, types of structures in proximity to the pipeline, environmental impacts, <br />railroad crossings, magnitude of customer outages, and the magnitude of gas <br />flow should the pipeline segment fail.” <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, September 15, 2010 Page 2 of 23 <br /> <br />