Governor Jerry Brown signed a pipeline safety bill today authored by Bakersfield Assemblymember Rudy Salas.
Assembly Bill 1420 will now require operators of pipelines near homes and schools to submit maps of those pipelines to the Division of Oil Gas and Geothermal Resources known as DOGGR. The bill also requires DOGGR to determine appropriate methods of testing pipelines.
Rudy Salas says the bill was inspired by a gas leak in Arvin in 2014. Eight families were forced out of their homes for the majority of the year after an underground pipeline leaked.
“People were confused about who was responsible and so this bill that the governor signed today helps provide those guidelines,” Salas says. “It helps put someone directly in charge in this case DOGGR and really what we want to do is we want to make sure this unfortunate incident doesn’t happen to other families in other communities throughout the state.”
The bill will take effect January 1.
