An aura of distrust prevailed at a community meeting held in Durham Thursday evening as representatives of Pacific Gas & Electric attempted to explain the planned removal of 32 trees along a rural road connecting Chico with Durham.
Over a dozen utility representatives, flanked by top Butte County officials, were on hand Thursday for the first of two meetings laying out the rationale for the planned removal of 32 young trees lining the Midway as part of a multi-billion dollar campaign to reduce potential risks to a buried natural gas transmission line.
The effort, before a mainly skeptical audience, met with limited success. Utility officials contend that the trees pose a potential threat to the 10-inch diameter line. Tree roots could damage protective coating, possibly leading to corrosion and eventual failure.
Utility officials, however, could not point to any incident when tree roots caused a pipeline failure, rupture or explosion. Several local residents took exception.
“The fact that you’ve never proven it, and that you go around doing your own little formula to decide which trees you are going to take,” said Oroville resident Joanna Arroyo. “You’ve never proven, and I read it … Do you have another report beside the dynamic assessment? Because this report looks like it was written by a high school dropout.”
Utility officials said after identifying over 100 trees as a potential risk along the 1.2-mile stretch of road, they winnowed the number down to 32. That did little to mollify several of the 25 attendees, who chastised company representatives repeatedly over a failure to divulge the number of trees slated for removal throughout the region.
Company officials said they are still tallying how many they’ll need to cut down in local municipalities and on privately owned land.
Jim Monniger, a PG&E customer service manager, asked for patience.
“We know we have to do a better job communicating,” he said. “This is the start of a conversation; it’s not the end of it.”
Another meeting is scheduled to be held Monday at the Patrick Ranch Museum, beginning at 5 p.m.
