New Yorkers live atop a minefield of decrepit Con Edison steam pipes overseen so loosely that state regulators have no records of the utility’s worst explosions, say lawyers working for two people injured in July’s Midtown steam blast.
The state Public Service Commission “does not maintain inspection, maintenance and complaint reports concerning Con Ed’s operation” of the city’s steam system, said Kenneth Thompson, a lawyer representing blast-burn victims Gregory McCullough and Judith Bailey.
PSC record keeping is so lax, the agency has no data about big steam blasts in November 1993, February 1996 and August 2000, Thompson said.
And the only record the PSC could produce of a March 2003 blast near 51st Street and Fifth Avenue was the first five pages of a seven-page report. State officials say they withheld that report’s final two pages on the grounds that releasing them would endanger someone’s life.
PSC officials declined yesterday to say what information on the two pages would be so dangerous – or to whom.
McCullough’s and Bailey’s lawyers are puzzled by the PSC’s refusal to hand over that information. “We have no idea what that is about,” said Thompson. “We think they were stonewalling us.”
Thompson said that when lawyers noted that state rules – enacted after a 1989 blast near Gramercy Park – require the agency to keep records of steam incidents and accidents, they were told “the PSC does not enforce the reporting requirements . . . against Con Edison.”
The state’s inability to provide information about previous blasts “creates the risk we’ll have another steam-pipe explosion in which people may be killed or maimed,” Thompson said.
“The only agency responsible for Con Edison is the Public Service Commission,” Thompson said. “If they are failing in their responsibility to supervise Con Ed, it jeopardizes the lives of all New Yorkers.”
PSC spokesman James Denn said Thompson’s letter to the agency outlining the problems contained many “inaccuracies and mischaracterizations.”
Con Ed says it regularly submits its operating plans, incident reports and other information to the state.
“All our inspection, testing and maintenance records are available to the PSC for annual audits or whenever requested by them for review,” said company spokeswoman Elizabeth Clark.
McCullough, 21, was burned over 80 percent of his body on July 18 when the tow truck he was driving was hurled into the air by the force of the steam blast at 41st Street and Lexington Avenue.
Bailey, 30, a passenger in his truck, was burned over 30 percent of her body.
The steel pipe that burst had been installed in 1924, Con Ed said. Much of the steam system is more than 100 years old. The company says it is still investigating the cause of the blast.
Con Ed has 105 miles of steam mains, which serve about 1,800 buildings south of 96th Street. It’s the only steam utility regulated by the PSC.
Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) said the PSC’s lack of records about the steam system show it’s “asleep at the switch.”