I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Fiesta’s Restaurant owner Dennis Carpenter is angry that he was not warned of the explosive hazard posed by a 2008 natural gas leak next to his Albuquerque cantina.
Carpenter wants PNM to be punished for pipeline safety violations related to the incident, but he worries the company will simply pass on the cost of any fines to consumers.
PNM could face up to $500,000 in fines from the state Public Regulation Commission (PRC) for safety violations related to the leak and for improperly “odorizing” natural gas in separate incidents during 2006, 2007 and 2008.
“They’ll probably just pass that on to the end user,” Carpenter said. “That’s my concern. If they pay a $500,000 fine, they just pass it on the end user, and it doesn’t hurt PNM at all. I don’t know what the Commission can do, but if there were sanctions that wouldn’t allow them to pass it on to the consumer, that would be better.”
PNM has negotiated to a $66,000 settlement with Public Regulatory Commission (PRC) staff for the violations. PRC commissioners held an all-day public hearing Monday to discuss the proposed settlement and will decide whether to approve the settlement next month.
A potentially explosive “Grade 1” leak from a buried pipeline at the busy intersection of Carlisle and Montgomery in Albuquerque was discovered by PNM workers in May 2008.
But PNM officials did not alert state authorities, as required by law.
Nor did they begin repair the leak until PRC Pipeline Safety Bureau investigator Joe Johnson showed up at the site two months later, following up on a tip from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Repairs occurred on the southeast and northeast corners of the busy intersection, PRC and PNM records show.
The parking lot of Fiesta’s Restaurant and Cantina was next to a now-closed, manhole accessible vault where the leak was first detected in May 2008.
“They never told me there was any danger,” Dennis Carpenter, owner of Fiesta’s Restaurant, said Tuesday. “Unbelievable. (PNM work crews) just showed up one day (in July) and started tearing up the intersection. … I didn’t understand there was any kind of danger for my customers or employees, or my family that works there. They were tremendously remiss in not notifying us there was a hazard there.”
The gas leak was located next to the restaurant and under part of the intersection, PRC records show. But repairs on both the northeast and southeast sides of the intersection were the result of the PRC’s safety investigation, Johnson said Monday.
Carpenter’s complaint echoed comments from other business managers across Montgomery Blvd, where PNM crews repaired swaths of pipeline along Carlisle and behind a small strip mall housing a hair salon, flower shop and pawnshop.
Albuquerque Wholesale Florist manager Robert Torres had reported the smell of gas behind his shop and PNM crews subsequently replaced metered service lines that delivered gas to the flower shop and neighboring stores.
A high-pressure relief valve on the pipeline next to the stores was improperly positioned and could have funneled escaping gas into the stores, according to PRC records. Service pipes delivering gas to the businesses were also placed where the stores’ rear entrance doors hit them when opened, Johnson added.
The pipeline is now owned and maintained by the New Mexico Gas Company.
