Pacific Gas and Electric
Pacific Gas and Electric Company was founded in 1905 and is a subsidiary of Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation holding company. Better known as PG&E, the San Francisco-based company is one of the nation's largest combination electric and natural gas utilities. It services about 15 million people in Central and Northern California, covering an area of 70,000 square miles.
PG&E is probably best known as the subject of the 2000 movie, Erin Brockovich. The film profiles the problems caused by groundwater contamination in the town of Hinkley, California. It focuses on the efforts of a determined legal assistant, Erin Brockovich, played by Julia Roberts, to hold PG&E accountable for contaminating the town’s drinking water with toxic chemicals. Brockovich found paperwork in an old file which proved that PG&E officials knew about the contamination and chose to keep the contamination hidden. In real life, PG&E paid out more than $400 million in damages via lawsuits filed against them.
PG&E owns a number of different types of power plants. The Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila, California, is the only nuclear power plant owned by the company. The company once owned and operated the Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant in Eureka. However, the facility was closed in 1976 for seismic refitting – meant to make the building more earthquake resistant – and never reopened. PG&E also operated a number of fossil fuel plants, including some at Humboldt Bay and one at Hunters Point in San Francisco. Although these plants also closed, the company owns three solar plants in the Mohave Desert.
Pacific Gas and Electric and Asbestos
For much of PG&E’s history, company facilities used asbestos materials, usually as insulation. Asbestos, which was used in thousands of plants around the country until the late 1970s, was favored for its excellent fire-proofing qualities. In utilities plants, it was generally used to wrap pipes, electrical wires, generators and other high-temperature equipment and machinery. As a result, many workers were exposed to it and became sick. This is because if airborne asbestos fibers are inhaled, they may become lodged in the lungs and cause mesothelioma and asbestosis.
Pacific Gas and Electric and Asbestos Litigation
PG&E has a reputation for ignoring health and environmental concerns. Throughout the past several decades, PG&E employees and residents near its facilities were exposed to asbestos. That resulted in lawsuits against the company, including one 1998 case brought by numerous residents of Pittsburg, California, in the San Francisco area. Pipes at PG&E’s 10th Street plant were improperly connected to a boiler, causing asbestos to contaminate homes in the area and boats at the city marina.
Others filed suits because they were exposed to asbestos while working at one of PG&E’s many plants. Those affected included welders, insulators, electricians, pipefitters and others who worked with or near the toxic mineral.
The company faced thousands of lawsuits and was $12 billion in debt when it filed for bankruptcy in 2001. Four years later, PG&E paid $10.2 billion in damages to hundreds of creditors and resumed business.
Resources for Power Plant Workers
Anyone who encountered asbestos, even for just a short time, can potentially develop asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma or asbestosis. Mesothelioma, a rare cancer which usually affects the lining of the lungs, is difficult to detect. It has a long latency period – 20 to 50 years – and symptoms generally do not appear until several decades after one’s first exposure. For this reason, it is important for exposed individuals to tell their doctors of previous exposure and to be periodically tested for mesothelioma. To learn more about mesothelioma cancer testing, call a Patient Advocate at (800) 615-2270.
If you’ve already been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you should find a quality doctor to handle your treatment. The Doctor Match Program can help you locate a mesothelioma expert in your area. For more information on this unique program, complete the form on this page or speak with a Patient Advocate.
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© 2012 The Mesothelioma Center |
Last Modified Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy |
The information provided by The Mesothelioma Center is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Sponsored by a law firm concentrating in asbestos litigation, The Peterson Firm, LLP with offices at 1350 Connecticut Ave, NW, Fifth Floor, Washington DC 20036.
