PG&E: Some Santa Rosa trees may have to go for gas pipeline access

PG&E’s campaign to remove trees that could block emergency access to the utility’s natural gas transmission lines is ramping up in Santa Rosa, company officials said.

The effort involves collaboration with city officials and private property owners to determine how many trees - from an initial list of nearly 2,000 - are actually close enough to underground gas lines to interfere with the need to quickly cut off the flow of gas in an emergency, said Jeff Smith, a PG&E spokesman.

Smith likened the concept to prohibitions against parking in front of a fire hydrant: It may be used rarely, but when it’s needed the hydrant - or the gas line - must be easy to get at.

“When it happens, you need immediate access,” Smith said.

To shut off a pipeline, emergency crews need to dig into the ground to access the metal pipe, then squeeze it closed with a special tool, he said.

PG&E is sending letters this week to 139 property owners in six areas of Santa Rosa where aerial surveys have identified 993 trees on private property that could be problematic. Trees within five feet of either side of a gas transmission line typically need to be removed, Smith said.

The utility hopes to gain property owners’ consent to conduct site visits to determine whether such action is needed.

If a tree or shrub poses a problem, PG&E would either transplant it or remove and replace it with other vegetation entirely at the utility’s expense. No landscaping work will be done without the landowner’s approval, Smith said.

“We want to ensure that every situation is in better shape than we found it when the work is complete,” he said.

Structures such as sheds, decks, pools and hot tubs may also impede access to gas lines.

The Community Pipeline Safety Initiative, begun in 2013, is part of PG&E’s $3 billion investment in gas safety programs. Already active in the East Bay and South Bay, the initiative is now coming to Santa Rosa, Smith said.

PG&E representatives will describe the initiative at today’s Santa Rosa City Council meeting which starts at 4 p.m.

Jason Nutt, the city’s director of transportation and public works, said he and other city staffers have been working with PG&E to check trees near gas transmission lines on public property.

“I am supportive of what they need to do to maintain the system,” he said.

PG&E’s aerial surveys initially identified ?928 trees on public property that might be problematic, but officials subsequently determined that only 101 of them need to be moved, Smith said.

Based on that outcome, he said the number of trees on private property to be removed likely will be much fewer than 993.

Letters will be sent to property owners in six areas where gas transmission lines are buried:

Montgomery Drive between Third Street and Los Alamos Road;

Santa Rosa Avenue between Bellevue Avenue and Yolanda Avenue;

Kawana Terrace between Kawana Springs Road and Eastern Route Trail;

West College Avenue between Marlow Road and North Dutton Avenue;

Guerneville Road between Fulton Road and Marlow Road; and

Between West Steele Lane and Hopper Avenue, where a line runs through some backyards and then parallel to the railroad tracks. The line is a safe distance from the tracks to be used by the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit commuter trains, Smith said.

The program applies only to gas transmission lines, which bring natural gas into communities, and not the smaller distribution lines that deliver gas to homes and businesses.

PG&E provides natural gas to 4.3 million customers via 6,700 miles of transmission pipeline in its 70,000-square-mile service area from Bakersfield to the Oregon border.

A map of PG&E’s gas transmission lines is available online at pge.com/pipelinelocations.

You can reach staff writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner