In rich neighborhoods, the ditch was leveled,,,by my shovel, sanded by buckets from a backhoe,leveled by my shovel, then gas main in front of you house was slowly and carefully lowered into the ditch by a strap on the backhoe arm, my job was to check for nicks then in the bottom on the ditch scary alone and patch them, then the gas pipe was sand buried again, leveled by my shovel,,, and separated from other electrical or pipe services in the ditch, and then slowly and carefully covered with dirt, not big heavy damaging dirt clods and rocks, from the surround, run over again and again by a backhoe. So much care to insure the maximum safe life of the pipe,,,and the homes on that street.
In what seemed poorer neighborhoods, the gas main down your street in front of your house,,, was just dropped in the ditch!,,,on the rocks and dirt clods!,,,no sand(how abundant!! and dirt cheap!! is sand in the state of California!? Stupid),,,and no guy down in the ditch checking for gas pipeline, tar or plastic, insulation nicks,,,just dump more rocks and hard clay dirt clods on that gas main or service line to your house !! And expect leaks,,,SOON!!
Now that the gas main explosion has happened in San Bruno, we and the Governator and the State Legislature need to step up and make it the LAW that there is ONE STANDARD, THE HIGH SAFE STANDARD, for California. Period.
