Frontline Fever, Wednesday at 3.30.
This is Channel 7 News Scene Tonight Tuesday with Ken Matz, Jan Carson, Pete Giddings with
weather, Jim Salenia with sports.
Now, News Scene Tonight.
Good evening.
This is News Scene Tonight live from the streets of San Francisco in front of Embarcadero Center.
We have two major stories tonight.
First, a natural gas leak and major PCB spill right here.
Second, the med fly. Five med flies found in a new location in the state of California,
Los Angeles, resulting problems for farmers and shippers.
First, the story of the gas main break and PCB contamination.
The spill occurred this afternoon near Embarcadero Center.
Tonight, a big cleanup is underway, including the steam cleaning of vehicles and the use of a vacuum truck to suck up the waste water.
A bigger job is still ahead, the cleaning of the street and the buildings before things can return to normal in one of San Francisco's busiest business sections.
They say it can be done within the next six hours. Only time will tell.
Ed McBride, the director of operations at Embarcadero Center, says all Embarcadero Center buildings will be open tomorrow.
Here's a capsule report on how the whole thing developed today.
It all began about 1.45 this afternoon when a private contractor using a crane at the corner of Sacramento and Battery punctured a 16-inch PG&E natural gas line.
The high-pressure gas blew into the area around the Embarcadero Center and stayed in the pocket created by the high buildings.
Evacuations were ordered because of fire or explosion danger, and some 25,000 people, employees, shoppers, and motorists, began to leave the area.
Some said the evacuation order was unclear. There were charges of locked emergency doors.
But eventually, all made it out safely. Only two workers suffered minor injuries.
But everyone noticed the fallout of an oily substance that coated cars, buildings, and some people.
It took hours before that substance was identified as partly PCB, a hazardous chemical used by the utility up until three years ago as an insulator and a lubricant.
The fire department at Calocha ordered a quarantine. Pedestrians' shoes were washed. Workers suited up in protective gear.
Dozens of cars may have to be decontaminated. They're sitting in the parking lot at Embarcadero Center number one.
Lots of people's clothing may have to be destroyed. Who's going to pay for it all? Well, PG&E says that has yet to be determined.
News Seems Charles Thomas has been looking into the PCB contamination hazard.
A PG&E lab test conducted earlier this evening determined the PCB contamination level here to be 25 parts per million.
Federal regulators recognize 50 parts per million PCB contamination as the hazardous level and prescribe special disposal and decontamination procedures.
So this is a minor PCB spill by government standards that can be cleaned up using normal methods by workers not wearing protective clothing.
But in spite of the spill's minor status, Calocha's Dr. Richard Wade has some instructions for people who may have been exposed here.
Our action here tonight is to decontaminate and keep the level of PCBs so that people are not having it continually exposed to their skin.
If people have had clothing on that is noticeably contaminated, they walked out, they were sprayed with the oil,
if there are visible stains of oil that they got on their clothing, then they should destroy that clothing.
If they were incidentally exposed and there's no visible stains, they should wash the clothes separately and they can be reused.
All shoes of any persons who walk through this area where the oil is on the ground or walk through the oil, those shoes should be destroyed.
And cars should be washed with soap and water like any other dirty car should be washed because, according to PG&E,
the PCB contamination level here is only 25 parts per million.
Now that 25 parts per million figure is raising controversy here tonight. Here with me from the PCB project in Sonoma County is Shabia Bechto.
And you're concerned about that 25 parts per million figure that we've been hearing tonight.
Yes, well I view what's going on down here and they're doing all this for 25 parts per million,
which is a very dangerous level, at least accordingly to the Court of Appeals as of October.
Yet PG&E now with an 18 month exemption has stated this is still a legal level.
If you're telling us you don't agree with that 25 parts per million is necessarily safe, is that what you're saying?
There's no safe level of PCBs. Every study that you ever find is probably as far as 4 billion.
What concerns me that's happening down here, especially with the restaurants and the population,
is the fact that if I like one person to show me PG&E's lab slip with the name of their lab on it.
Well apparently CalOSHA has also determined that the PCB level here is 25 parts per million with their own independent tests.
And that is the situation. Of course you don't agree that the 25 parts per million is just safe enough.
Well CalOSHA number one doesn't even have a PCB standard on either the environment or the level in humans.
And I'd like to know where they also had their tests done. I'd like to see it in black and white.
Thank you very much, Inspector. I'm John DeVecco of the PCB Project from Sonoma County. Ken Mapps?
Yeah, Charles. State and city officials are a little more optimistic than that, though. Jen?
Ken, what about the cars that people have left in the Embarcadero Center? Do officials have any word on that tonight?
Well, as far as we know, everything's got to be cleaned down here. They're concentrating right now first on the streets,
then on the buildings, getting the buildings reopened, then they'll worry about the cars inside.
Okay, Ken, that's the situation from the scene right now. We do have a studio model of the affected area,
which we'll be taking a closer look at in just a few moments.
But first let's go back to how the area looked shortly after that gas line ruptured this afternoon, shortly after 2 o'clock.
The people who saw the accident said the roar of the escaping gas was deafening,
and the force of the rupture was felt by those inside the surrounding office buildings.
Some described the leak as a rushing geyser at one point shooting up four to five stories high,
filling the air with a pungent odor and covering the area with an oily mist.
We still don't know why the accident happened, and no one has assumed responsibility for it.
We do know how it happened. Two construction companies were working at the site, the future site of an office building.
A crane operator for Santa Fe-Palmeroy was doing some drilling when the line was ruptured.
It was like a tire blowing out. It would blow out like that, and then rocks and dirt and everything went in the air, so we just took off.
Nobody was hurt? Nobody was hurt, no.
Well, for the most part, eyewitnesses said there was very little panic as people fled the gas-filled buildings
or were ordered to evacuate.
I was outside of the building, so I didn't hear it. I heard the big crash when the crane fell,
but I didn't know what was happening until we got into the stairwell, then we could smell the gas.
At least five people were overcome by the fumes and taken to hospitals,
one of them a PG&E worker who had gone into a building to check gas levels.
Fred Peterson was taken out by stretcher after he became lightheaded, breathing the concentrated gas.
People who inhaled the gas and came into contact with the oily mist complained of burning eyes and headaches.
As crews worked to shut off the flow of gas, PG&E says service to 24 of its major customers were interrupted,
and much of the restaurant business in the area was shut down very early tonight because of the emergency.
Now, as I mentioned, we do have a studio map of the affected area, the contamination area, as it is being outlined tonight.
The boundaries, California Street to the south, on the east, Drum Street to the north, Clay is the boundary,
and then to the west is Sansom. This is roughly an eight-block area,
and officials are saying that people who were in this eight-block area when that spill occurred
should take the precautions that we've just heard from Charles Thomas.
Now, the site of the gasoline rupture occurred right here, Battery and Sacramento Streets.
This is Embarcadero 1, Building 2 and 3 on down Sacramento Streets.
All these buildings were shutting down this afternoon.
As Ken reported, they will be back to business tomorrow.
The cars that are located in the parking lots, and the owners had to leave without them today,
they are located in Embarcadero 1, the main office building there,
and they will have to be decontaminated before their owners can pick them up.
And to repeat, officials say this is a minor PCB spill.
Others are saying there really is no such thing as a minor spill or something that can be considered a safe level,
and so officials are urging that if you have clothing with stains on it, that you destroy that.
If you have clothing that just came into contact, wash it off.
Be sure to wash your hands off. If you have shoes that came into contact with that oily substance, destroy them.
And by all means, wash your car off.
These are the precautions that officials are urging people to take tonight
if you are in this eight-block contamination area bounded by California, Drum, Clay and Sansom. Ken?
Jan, when this spill is cleaned up and business finally gets back to normal right here in the financial district,
a lot of questions are going to be asked about just how this emergency was handled.
Many people are now saying that San Francisco came within a hair's breadth of a major disaster,
and Acting Mayor Lee Dolson is questioning our emergency response systems.
There are also questions being raised about the evacuation of the Embarked Aero Center high rises.
These are some of the questions they're asking.
I was concerned for my safety. I was more concerned when I got in that stairwell when I couldn't get out,
because after we started evacuating the building under the normal evacuation conditions,
they tell you to take the stairwell, don't take the elevator.
So we start down in the stairwell, and then they say on the announcement to take the elevator, and we couldn't get out.
I find it hard to believe that there would be some doors that would be locked, but of course those things can happen.
Any door which is required to be operable and found to be otherwise is immediately reported and corrected.
We've got an evacuation problem in this city. We've got a communication problem in this city.
And in order to afford people a chance to survive any kind of natural disaster,
you've got to improve that particular means to take care of it. Communication and transportation are really bad.
I lost sound somehow. I don't know why.
All these questions will certainly be argued in the days and weeks ahead, and of course when we get the answers, we'll put them on to you.
I'm Steve. Hi, Suzanne. How are you? Good afternoon. Here's what's happening.
San Francisco's financial district turned into a chemical war zone today.
Emergency workers taking to the streets to try to get rid of the toxic chemical PCB.
They used every weapon at their disposal today, and some of them were very conventional, soap and water and scrub brushes.
In other cases, the tools were not conventional at all. What we were seeing right there was the high-rise fire at the hotel in Los Angeles.
We'll get this back together in just a moment. There we're going now.
In other cases, the tools were not conventional. Giant vacuum cleaners were stripping leaves off the trees in the area, leaves coated with an oily layer of PCB.
It all started yesterday afternoon when a construction crane tore up an agaping hole in a 16-inch natural gas main.
Over 30,000 people were evacuated from that area around the Embarcadero by the time workmen got control of the high-pressure gas.
What people at the scene did not know until late in the day was that PCB was also being spewed from that ruptured pipe and covering everything in the area with a fine mist.
The people who were forced to flee their offices didn't know when they left for home last night whether they'd be able to go back to work today.
But for the most part, they decided to make the commute and try to get to their jobs this morning.
News scenes David Rowe was there as they started to cope with the day after.
It was a new day for people coming to work at number one Embarcadero Center.
As they paraded back to their offices, cleanup crews were still waging a campaign to rid the streets and sidewalks of PCB contamination from the gas leak.
They had worked last evening, they worked through the night, and as they broke this morning, the job was far from finished.
Because some areas were still contaminated, like this two-block stretch of Front Street, it was difficult for some people to get to work.
You can't get to work? No, I can't.
How long do you have to stay outside of the corned-off area? They told me at least two to three hours.
What are you going to do? Go for coffee.
In some cases, those who got to work had tough jobs to tackle.
Employees at Fujia Restaurant, directly across the street from the ruptured gas main, were scrubbing every pot, pan, and utensil in the kitchen.
To be on the safe side, all food was thrown out for fear of PCB contamination.
Large amounts of fresh shrimp, scallops, produce, even seasonings were dumped.
A strange odor reeked through the restaurant, causing some workers to complain. Others refused to work at all.
One of the managers estimated they lost over $3,000 in business.
Office workers showed up, even though some weren't feeling well.
Betsy Thompson got a PCB shower yesterday as she evacuated a restaurant near the gas leak.
If you think about it today, I'll tell you, I haven't washed my hair yet and I should have. I should have. I'm a little worried.
I feel miserable today. I feel nauseous. The scent is still out in the street today and I don't feel good today at all.
PG&E crews are washing down everything that may have been contaminated, even utility poles and traffic lights.
This is the way we wash tea bags.
They're using a solution of pentatone and water, which they hope will neutralize the PCB.
But the problem is, the wash water is landing back on the sidewalks, which have already been cleaned up.
So the sidewalks will have to be cleaned again if the job is to be done right.
Fire engines, police cars, and other vehicles sprayed by the PCB residue were getting special care too.
A makeshift car wash was set up on Sacramento Street to decontaminate them.
For all the trauma people have gone through because of the gas leak, some have not lost their sense of perspective.
Life is returning to as normal as possible.
At Embarcadero Center, David Louie, Channel 7 News Scene.
Let's go back over this again and what happened yesterday very carefully because a lot of people are not familiar with the financial district and the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco.
Here's what it looks like on the map.
The accident took place at the construction site at the intersection of Sacramento and Battery Streets right across the street from the three Embarcadero Center buildings.
Now, on the scale model we have, we can show you exactly where that is.
The construction site is here at the corner of Sacramento and Battery.
This would be the Federal Reserve Bank across the street.
And this is the Embarcadero Center that spreads all the way out this way.
Embarcadero 1, Embarcadero 2, Embarcadero 3.
When the gas main broke here on the construction site at Sacramento and Battery, they then absolutely evacuated an eight block square area in there.
Today, only a two block area.
In this part of it, the area right here, has still been kept evacuated.
Now, as they have been working on this, when it happened and the eight block area was evacuated, of course it was off limits to all the traffic that was in the area.
And they have been very, very concerned about the cars that were there this morning.
That two block stretch in here was the one that people had to stay out of.
Now, tomorrow morning things are going to be back to normal.
It's going to take a lot longer than that, they think, to sort out why and what and how it happened.
That's exactly what they're trying to do right now.
And they're also trying to figure out who's going to pay the enormous costs for the cleanup and all the clothes that were destroyed in it.
After crews worked all night long to try to clean up the mess, dawn broke and there was still a lot to do.
The man who wound up taking charge and making most of the decisions in the heat of the battle was City Health Director Mervyn Silverman.
Silverman refused to reopen streets.
When Pacific Gas and Electric seemed satisfied, they'd done enough to clean things up.
He demanded a more thorough job and he got it.
They're saying that they have cleaned up twice and they don't feel there's any problem.
As long as they get the residue, the material they were using to collect this oil up and get it away, then I would agree with it.
If the job looks expensive, it's because it's going to be.
Estimates are very vague right now, but everybody seems to agree it's going to be in the millions of dollars.
PG&E owned the pipe and the gas and the PCBs that poured out of it.
The company had to hire two firms that specialize in cleaning up toxic wastes,
and already claims from merchants and people with ruined clothing are coming in.
There's a lot of restaurants there, it's my understanding, happening when it did, the evacuation.
People had late lunches, perhaps walked out, didn't pay their bills.
That's something to consider, the operations, the boutiques and what have you that had to shut down.
And the employees that left, are they going to be compensated by their employers for work that they didn't perform and so forth?
That's obviously going to be investigated and considered.
Even the fire department is likely to claim that PG&E should be forced to pay.
A lot of firemen outfitted in expensive gear were exposed to PCB, and that gear might now turn out to be useless.
We are having their uniforms thrown away.
We must dispose of them, their uniforms, their boots and their shoes.
We're doing this on advice of Cal OSHA.
PG&E is ready for the onslaught of calls from people who were in that area yesterday and might have come in contact with PCB.
If you were there, the advice tonight is, put your clothing in a double plastic bag and call PG&E at this number,
981-3232, I'll repeat that, 981-3232.
You should not destroy the clothes until you get in contact with PG&E.
Well that's true, there was word last night that you should take the clothes off of their stain in your shoes and destroy them,
but now they've put it, they've allayed that and they've said, no, no, get a double plastic bag, put everything in there,
close it up very tightly and then call. They will tell you what to do with it.
There'll be a lot of people interested in finding out what to do with that.
Well that was going on, the massive cleanup of the Gaslick area has been going on all night and throughout the day today,
and it may be several more weeks before that cleanup of the area and the PCB residue is completed.
Everything that was covered with the oil mist from the trees to the sidewalks, the car and more has to be decontaminated
and that's going to take a while. New scenes, Ken Max is on the scene right now of the cleanup operation
and Ken has the latest. Ken, how's the cleanup going right now?
Very noisy as you can hear in the background, they keep turning up the volume to get more pressure.
What they're doing now is they are spraying a chemical called Triton 100 on some of the trees here.
Hopefully to disperse the oily substance and get it off the trees.
The ivy that adorns the buildings will be ripped out, it's going to be taken to a Class 1 dump.
The buildings themselves will be washed down and as you said, that will be a matter of weeks.
It will take probably up to three weeks to complete the cover up.
Now, there have been some interesting developments today.
Number one is that they uncovered a manhole here that was full of the PCB contaminated oil.
They didn't know it was there last night and they brushed all the sand and the materials into that manhole inadvertently.
Number two, I saw two kids, perhaps age 10, walking down the street so security really isn't all that it should be.
With me right now is Phil Day, he's the director of San Francisco Emergency Services
and I don't know if you're totally aware of some of the security problems that they've had here
but how do you tell me first off how the operation has been going as far as you see it?
I think it has been going good, Ken. This is a big operation, no question about it.
This could have been a terrible catastrophic disaster.
When you evacuate 30, 40,000 people in 45 minutes out of this area here, like what's done, it is a feather in your hat.
And not only did I think the city departments performed very well,
but the people that work in these 20 buildings behind us did extremely well.
I know Jan would like to ask you some questions back in the studio. Jan, go ahead.
Mr. Day, this is Jan Carson. I know you are very pleased with the way things went
and Mayor Feinstein just back in the city has had a news conference to that effect.
However, Lee Dolson, Supervisor Dolson, who was acting mayor yesterday during this emergency, has been very critical
and he says there was a lack of coordination in the emergency procedures.
For instance, we know by 4 o'clock yesterday the police department said, told us they had not been informed that there was in fact an evacuation.
Weren't there some major problems in coordination yesterday?
I don't believe so, Jan. I was here at 220 and Supervisor Dolson and most of the department heads
and we had the police officials ride with us, with Chief Condon who was in charge for the city.
We didn't have our two communications vans close by to each other and that was a mistake and we want to get them closer,
but we had one-on-one liaison and as far as the security yesterday can, I thought it was very good.
What about the evacuation yesterday? We heard from many people evacuated from the buildings
that they were told to go down the stairwells and then halfway down they were told to take the elevators.
Why was there a problem there?
I'm not exactly sure of the reason for that. It was done so quickly and of course they initially thought there might be a fire.
Chief Casper has commented on it. I really should reserve that question for him.
But let me tell you that I did get a call from New York City and my counterpart in New York complimented us
on our large evacuation in downtown San Francisco and have asked us how we did it
and would like to have our after action report on it.
Then you are basically pleased and would do things the same way if this should come up again?
Yes, I'm not sure what I would change very much. Maybe a little bit better communications with the public.
I would have a joint communications van that Supervisor Dolson spoke of, but we had no casualties
and anytime you can do one of these with no fatalities or injuries, it's a feather in your hat.
Okay, thank you very much. Phil Day, Chief.
Good evening. Here's what's happening here. Two major stories at the top of our news tonight.
First of all, the cleanup and confusion in the wake of yesterday's gas main leak in San Francisco's financial district.
You are going to be looking at a live minicam picture of the area that was evacuated yesterday.
The more than 30,000 people driven from their homes, offices were back at work today
unsure of any potential danger resulting from exposure to the cancer causing chemical PCB.
Several hours after the contractor's drill ruptured that hole in the gas main at Sacramento and Battery,
cleanup workers discovered an oily film in the area that was found to contain PCB.
Tonight we're learning conflicting points of views as to how much PCB was there and how dangerous that PCB might be.
We'll have several reports in the aftermath of all of this in just a moment.
Our other top story tonight is the med fly. The war against the med fly was escalated tonight
with the discovery of fertile med flies in Los Angeles County.
State officials are calling the discovery an immense increase to the threat to California's $14 billion agricultural industry.
Also today, a med fly was found in the city of Oakland.
We'll have a reaction to all of this plus details on the revised spraying plans in just a few minutes.
Right now, we have reports on the aftermath of yesterday's gas leak and the consequent PCB spill in San Francisco's financial district.
First of all, new scenes, Lee McCarron.
The cleanup from the gas main eruption lasted all through the night and well into today.
Sand was spread down to soak up all the oil containing PCBs which had puddled up on the streets and sidewalks.
After the sand removal, such as it was, came soap and water, scrubbing, sweeping, and the hard spray of water jets
in the effort to decontaminate everything that had been coated.
After the roaring gas was shut off and the gas main welded shut, the trouble could have ended very quickly
had it not been for the presence of PCBs in the pump insulating oil which sprayed out with the gas.
The expanding cloud of tiny oil droplets which spread from gutters to high rises soon was recognized as the real problem.
Although in concentrations of 25 parts per million, the PCBs were not generally considered to be an immediate serious hazard.
All through the emergency, power seemed to shift from PG&E to police, to Fire Chief Andrew Casper,
and in the end to this man, City Health Director Mervyn Silverman.
He assumed authority and everything revolved around his decisions.
When PG&E had cleaned up the streets to their own satisfaction and wanted to reopen,
it was Silverman who countermanded that decision.
There's still some of the sand that was used as an absorbent material to pick up the, whatever residue was there,
and that is, some of that's still on the ground.
One of the problems they're having is some of these cars that are parked make it difficult to move this through.
So what I've told them is they are not to open the street until the sand has been collected and disposed of.
At sunrise, a few streets around the Embarcadero still were closed to traffic,
but most of the thousands of people who were evacuated from the area yesterday were able to find a detour out to their jobs.
But meanwhile, Silverman at PG&E were having a fundamental disagreement.
Not only did he think it was ludicrous for PG&E personnel to wear no protective equipment, not even gloves, during most of the cleanup,
he didn't think PG&E's process of cleaning from the streets up was right.
He suggested starting the cleanup at treetop level and working down.
By the time PG&E workers had gotten to the trees and began vacuuming off the oil-coated leaves,
the streets, sidewalk, and cars below already had been washed and promptly got a coating of PCB oil shaken down from the trees.
And not only were the sidewalk trees coated, the expensive plants on display outside Podesta Valdachi florists were ruined by an oil coating.
When the explosion went off, we had a girl out here mining our flower stand operation,
and evidently they were ordered to evacuate. The flowers were all left outside.
They couldn't have a chance to put them inside. They put the money in the safe, locked the doors, and went.
How much, what was the value of the flowers out here?
We're still making an inventory right now, and I spoke to Mr. Stark of PG&E,
and he told me that they're going to be responsible for everything, going to make an inventory, and that's what we're in the process of doing now.
The owners of Schroeder's Restaurant likewise took a financial punch from the evacuation,
which cut into their lunch crowd and eliminated dinner, as it did to several restaurants.
That probably cost us somewhere around $2,500 to $3,000 last night, because we had a lot of reservations,
and one thing after another set up, and people were calling, and after all, month of August is a big tourist season,
and we get a tremendous amount of tourists in our restaurant.
Overall, the costs to businesses undoubtedly were run into the millions, not only in lost income and merchandise,
but in lost productivity from the massive high-rise evacuation.
In the financial district, Lee McCarron, Channel 7 News Scene.
This is David Louie, and this is the scene that greeted workers this morning when they reported to their jobs at Embarcadero Center.
Cleanup crews were still hosing down the PCB residue left by the ruptured gas main.
The crews had worked all night, but the task was too much, even for the dozens of people assigned to the job.
There was still a faint smell of gas in the air, but no gas at all at restaurants in the Embarcadero complex.
People wanting a hot breakfast had to do without.
It was cold. We blew a good day yesterday, and Wednesdays are usually a good breakfast day.
I don't know what to say on that.
PG&E crews showed up just before 9 o'clock to restore gas service.
The ruptured 16-inch gas pipe that created yesterday's problems had been patched overnight.
Once the gas was turned back on, building PG&E workers went around to light pilot lights and to make sure everything was working properly.
The potential of a gas explosion yesterday forced hundreds of people to leave their cars overnight in the underground garage at No. 1 Embarcadero Center.
They were allowed to claim them this morning.
I mean, you can feel the back of the car has oil on it.
I mean, I would just have seen it sold in the car in the parking lot.
I don't think any level of this stuff is safe.
Has anyone told you what to do about cleaning up the car?
No, and I have called. Believe me.
First I called Embarcadero Center. Then they told me to call security.
Then they told me to call the garage.
Then they told me to call the fire department.
Then they told me to call PG&E.
Everybody told me to call a different number.
The Royal Runaround?
Right.
The number one topic around the offices upstairs was the danger of PCB contamination.
Some of that residue was stuck to the glass on the 14th floor of No. 3 Embarcadero Center.
One woman got showered by the PCB as she evacuated a sandwich shop.
She's worried today about her health.
There was a sudden gush from the pipe because we were like right up from the block.
And when it sprayed, all these particles, everything looked orange.
Everything was orangish colored.
And it sprayed down on us and I sheltered my eyes and went down.
And the whole top of my head just felt gummy and wet and you could just take your hair and go like that and get the grit out of it.
More than 10,000 people were evacuated from the tall towers of Embarcadero Center and nearby structures.
There were no injuries and apparently no problems.
Workers say they were amazed that the evacuation went quickly and smoothly.
It was very orderly. I walked down 24 flights. The elevators were all full.
Everybody was very calm. It went very well, I thought.
So for now the episode is over, but it's an episode that people will remember for a long time.
But hopefully with some positive notes too, the fact that the evacuation went very smoothly and that no one was injured.
In Embarcadero Center, David Louie, Channel 7 News Scene.
I'm Terri Lowry at Sacramento and Battery Streets.
The problem will not end here with the clean-up operation.
When all the costs, claims, and losses from the gas leak and the PCB spill are added up, the price tag could come to millions of dollars.
Merchants lost business because they had to close their doors.
Many restaurants complained that during the evacuation, customers left without paying for meals.
Some of those same restaurants were forced to throw food out because they feared PCB contamination.
There are all the financial district companies who lost a half-day's work from their employees.
And parking lots who ended up not charging customers forced to leave their cars overnight.
PG&E had to call in two private contractors to clean up the PCB spill.
Well, we don't know, of course, at the present time what the costs are because we're still in the process of cleaning it up.
We've got contractors out there.
We also lost gas, which would figure into the total picture of what it is.
So it's obviously thousands of dollars how much it is, you know, who knows at this point.
People who were in the area and had either their clothes and or their cars contaminated with PCBs will be expecting some reimbursement.
So PG&E has set up a hotline number to take names and addresses and provide information.
That number is 981-3232. 981-3232.
At the moment, PG&E is advising people who call to put their contaminated clothes in a tightly sealed plastic bag.
And just hold on to it until officials decide what should be done.
Emergency services personnel, police, ambulance, and fire were also exposed.
In the case of the fire department, Chief Andy Casper says 50 to 75 uniforms and sets of boots will have to be destroyed and paid for.
It's not our place to go after anyone.
But surely with discarding the uniforms, we will file a claim against the PG&E for replacement of those very expensive protective clothing uniforms.
Who will ultimately pay for all of this still remains the big question.
At the moment, investigators from the PUC, Cal OSHA, the city's health, fire, and police department are trying to determine who's responsible for the accident, the contractors, or somebody else.
The whole issue will probably go to litigation.
And a decision on who pays and how much they pay will likely be a long time in coming.
In San Francisco, I'm Terry Lowry, Channel 7 News Scene.
Well, we've tried all day to try to get some kind of statements from the contractor and the subcontractor involved in the incident in San Francisco, but nobody's been available for comment all day today.
Also, PG&E officials are saying tonight that just because the utility is providing the hotline number, it is not admitting any liability.
Well, it was just before 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon when that unwitting construction worker ruptured the gas main in downtown San Francisco.
And as natural gas and oily yellow film spewed out of that pipe, the immediate fear was of an explosion.
It was much later, several hours later, in fact, that we got word of the toxic PCBs also spewing into the air.
The news scene was tipped by an anonymous PG&E worker.
Today, PG&E told us that there are PCBs in many of their gas mains, but they wouldn't say how many.
PG&E started putting the PCBs into their gas mains in the 50s.
They were used effectively for many of the reasons they work in power line capacitors.
PCBs can withstand intense heat and pressure, and the substance is virtually fireproof.
But PG&E stopped using PCBs in gas mains in the 60s.
We asked the company today if PCBs were used in any other way that is unknown to the public.
Their spokesperson insisted he did not know of any, nor did he know of any companies manufacturing PCBs now.
PG&E is not planning any kind of replacement program for the gas mains that contain the toxic substance,
and whether it's going to take another accident involving thousands of people in danger to change their minds, we do not know.
We've also learned, though, tonight that along with PG&E, state and federal officials knew all about the PCBs in the gas pipelines.
The Federal Environment Protection Agency and the State Public Utilities Commission have been discussing those PCB levels in the gas lines since last March.
That's when PG&E announced that it had found the chemical in the gas mains in San Francisco and also in the city of San Jose.
And, Van, thousands of people started heading back to their jobs in San Francisco's financial district this morning.
But some of those workers inside a building on California Street didn't like what they smelled when they got to work, so they called the fire department.
They weren't too far from that big gas leak that forced their evacuation yesterday, and they were afraid they were sitting over a gas pocket.
Firemen helped open all the windows to air out the offices, but not before one woman became ill and had to go home.
Other employees complained of eye irritation.
The firemen couldn't say for sure if it was some of the escaped natural gas,
but they assumed that's what the bad smell was and gave the place a thorough airing out.
Of course, the after effects of yesterday's big gas leak will continue to cause some controversy for some time to come.
But right now, at the scene of the accident, life is beginning to get back to normal.
But there is still some evidence of what happened.
News scenes Ken Matz is live in the financial district right now for an update on what's happening there at this moment. Ken?
You're not going to believe this, but all day today and all night last night, we were inundated by the noise of heavy equipment and the big cleanup operation.
As I look around today, at this hour, hardly anything.
It looks like everybody packed up and went home just before 5 o'clock, at least PG&E did.
We're not sure about some of the other people who've been on the scene during the cleanup operations.
We'll try to find out why, because they say the cleanup, the total cleanup, could last about three weeks here.
We're also going to ask who's in charge, and we'll have Fire Chief Andy Casper and Dr. Mervyn Silverman coming up a little bit later in this broadcast.
Thank you very much, Ken.
Coming up a bit later on news scene, as Ken mentioned, we will be discussing some of the charges and countercharges among city officials over the question of who's in command when a disaster like the one that happened yesterday does happen.
Different kind of a problem in Santa Clara County right now. It's going to be another night of watching for the sewer officials in that area.
The threat of a massive sewage spill is still very big because of numerous equipment breakdowns.
Right now the plant is operating at the...