News from Walnut Creek
Kinder Morgan needs to offer full apology: InsideBayArea.com/The Oakland Tribune
NEARLY THREE years later, we're still waiting for the apology.
Last week, a subsidiary of energy giant Kinder Morgan pleaded no contest to six felonies stemming from the November 2004 pipeline blast in Walnut Creek that killed five workers, severely burned four more and left 14 children fatherless.
The tragedy happened during the construction of an East Bay Municipal Utility District water main. A backhoe working alongside the roadway struck a high-pressure gasoline line. Welding torches ignited the fuel, sending a fireball 60 feet into the air.
Fri, 09/21/2007 - 22:45 — Ken
Energy firm to pay $15 million for Walnut Creek blast that killed 5
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, September 21, 2007
(09-21) 12:02 PDT WALNUT CREEK - An energy company has been convicted of six felony counts and will pay $15 million in connection with a 2004 gasoline pipeline explosion in Walnut Creek that killed five construction workers, Contra Costa County prosecutors said today.
Attorneys for KMGP Services Co. Inc., a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, entered no-contest pleas this morning before Superior Court Judge Terence Bruiniers in Martinez.
________________________________________________
Blast kills 2, puts 6 in hospital
Meredith May, Demian Bulwa, Carrie Sturrock and Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
A fireball several stories high roared out of the ground near downtown Walnut Creek on Tuesday, killing two construction workers, injuring six and leaving two workers missing after a crew accidentally cut an underground jet fuel line.
_________________________________________________
Contractor Voiced Concerns Prior To Fatal Pipeline Explosion
POSTED: 2:16 pm PST November 26, 2004
WALNUT CREEK -- A Massachusetts contractor working on a water service upgrade warned utility officials that the underground fuel pipeline that exploded this month, killing five people, was hard to locate and would obstruct construction, a newspaper reported.
As early as March 2003 -- the same month work began on the $25 million project -- Modern Continental Construction told the East Bay Municipal District that difficulty in finding the adjacent fuel pipeline would delay the work and push up the cost, according to a series of memos obtained by the Contra Costa Times.
______________________________________________
Search continues for missing welders in Walnut Creek blast
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Emergency crews in Walnut Creek were planning to crawl into a water pipeline today to recover two missing welders after an explosion Tuesday killed two construction workers, burned six others and sent a fireball into the air.
_______________________________________________
Men burned in Walnut Creek explosion to get $6M
Mike TaugherSTAFF
Some of the victims of a deadly 2004 pipeline explosion in Walnut Creek will get a total of $6 million from a settlement with the East Bay Municipal Utility District and one of its contractors.
