Our fault? Whose fault? It (“Our own fault,” April 8) became PG&E’s fault when their initial substandard geological survey allowed the placement of their facility in an area of bedrock riddled with a chaotic network of interconnected seismic faults. One question today is who should be monetarily responsible for PG&E’s faulted initial assertion of seismic safety. Rate payers who had seismic smoke blown up their backside?
I have published a photo-documented “Day Tour” to chronicle the extensive faulting around the Diablo facility. I invite you to take the tour using my publication as a guide and then ask yourselves as I did, were PG&E’s geologists blind? Or were they blinded by their remittance? The tour is free and can be downloaded at santaluciasierraclub.org/diablo/diablo.html.
Seeing the seismic map in the Sun, showing the recent quake swarm activity at the Diablo shoreline, begs a second question: What is the rush to relicense and put a faulted cart before a prudent horse? It should be obvious to anyone with an IQ larger than their hat size that seismic studies should be completed with guarded trust and independently verified so that any decision, pro or con, can be made in a realistic fashion. These issues should be approached from a commonsense standpoint, no matter what your ideology. I urge the public to question with boldness PG&E’s haste in relicensing, stand with the truth of the seismic investigation, and speak without fear to those in decision-making positions. Then let the honest cards fall where they may.
This article appears in Apr 15-22, 2010.