SACRAMENTO, April 19 (UPI) -- The rupture of a gas pipeline that caused a deadly September explosion in California wasn't a result of poor record-keeping, a utility company said.
A September gas explosion killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in San Bruno, Calif., after a weld seam broke on the pipeline.
Records from the 1950s from Pacific Gas and Electric indicated the San Bruno line didn't have weld seams and the company never looked at the integrity of the welds on the pipeline walls.
PG&E officials told California regulators that they used an inspection technique to examine corrosion, which the utility company said was the primary threat to integrity, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
"The question becomes whether the correct seam type information ... would have changed PG&E's assessment methodology," the company was quoted as saying. "The short answer to that question is 'no.'"
The company added that, prior to the September gas explosion, there was no indication that the type of weld found to be used on the San Bruno line posed a long-term threat.
Federal regulators suggested the weld on the inside of the pipeline was botched when it was installed in the 1950s.
PG&E missed a March 15 deadline to submit records of its pipelines that haven't been tested for flawed welds.
