1. Lafayette's 272 iconic and heritage trees remain standing - While other communities did not sign agreements with PG&E for tree cutting, Lafayette is the only community that actively stopped tree cutting after the City had agreed and accepted money for the program.

 

2. Gas Safety Alliance Meetings - 2019 saw the formation of the "Gas Safety Task Force", a motivated and experienced group of five residents who have met with PG&E, CPUC & the City of Lafayette to review local gas safety programs in detail. The notes from these meetings can be found at: www.pgesafetyconcerns.com. PG&E has stated some of our concerns have been implemented in PG&E's state-wide operations, including overlaying wildfire risk zones on top of gas transmission pipeline locations. 

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3. Exposed Gas Pipelines Revealed - In November 2019, the Gas Safety Task Force shared photographs of potentially dangerous exposed gas pipeline spans located in Briones Park, Girl Scout Camp, and in a Springhill neighborhood. We convinced PG&E their current maintenance of these pipelines were insufficient to guarantee the safety of Lafayette residents. We also facilitated media exposure showing PG&E knew of these exposed spans in 2015 and had promised to bury them five years ago. After months of delay, PG&E conducted a third-party engineering review of the pipeline spans and followed our strong recommendations to remove a few dangerously overhanging trees above each span. (We are now asking PG&E to further study the welds, flammability of the coatings, and wildfire risks of these spans.)

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4. Presentation to Lafayette City Council - The Gas Safety Task Force presented to the City Council on November 25, 2019. In the presentation, a brief accounting of the state of Lafayette gas infrastructure was reviewed and significant issues were summarized. As a result, the City of Lafayette sent a letter demanding follow-up to these issues to the President of the CPUC, CEO of PG&E, and Governor of California. 

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5. Andreasen Drive Regulator station - We worked with the Andreasen Drive Homeowners Association to review the large-scale regulator station construction project, and are encouraging the City of Lafayette to replant trees once this project is completed.

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6. Lawsuits - our two lawsuits against the signed agreements with PG&E by City of Lafayette and East Bay Regional Parks remain active, pending PG&E's exit from bankruptcy court.

 

7. Other - Gina attended the national conference of the Pipeline Safety Trust in New Orleans, representing Lafayette's concerns to federal regulators and industry experts. We presented to the Rotary Club of Lafayette in early 2019. Gina and Michael filed documents with the CPUC to become party to the PG&E Safety Culture proceeding. Save Lafayette Trees joined the California Oaks Coalition.

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