You know PG&E is pretty much being blamed for killing those people in the September 9 San Bruno inferno and not really knowing what kind of pipes they even had underground down there? Well, federal and state investigators have given them until March 15 to get their shit together and prove that they have adequate records of all the gas pipelines they have running throughout the state. This comes after an NTSB report on January 7 that found that PG&E had records on the San Bruno pipe that inaccurately described it as "seamless." As the Mercury News reports, PG&E has got 300 people on this file-scanning job at the moment (talk about job creation):

Acting under orders from the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E reported that it has nearly 300 people pouring through the records 24 hours a day, seven days a week, has leased space for the search effort and has initially identified 1.25 million documents it is scanning into an electronic database. But the company's initial report on the document search didn't say how many miles of pipes may lack adequate paperwork... [following the March 15 deadline] some experts have said the company may have to conduct extensive new tests on hundreds of miles of its urban gas lines at a cost well into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

All of this doesn't speak too well of PG&E's previous state of organization, and one pipeline expert said that the documentation related to maximum pressure in a pipeline network should "all fit into a large filing cabinet," and he doesn't get what all these millions of documents are. Hillsborough district congresswoman Jackie Speier continues to lead the charge in criticizing PG&E no matter what they do or say on the matter, because, well, it's impossible for them not to sound like assholes at this point. Also disturbing: PG&E has found 59 leaks in its pipelines requiring immediate action, following a survey. But they say that some consultants have assured them that their five-year average of leaks per 1,000 miles of pipelines was "well below the national average." That's nice.

PREVIOUSLY: San Bruno Blast May Have Been Caused By Badly Welded Pipes, Did a Gas Line Pressure Spike Cause the San Bruno Blast?