More lazy/ignorant writing from the freep

[jt1]

http://www.freep.com/article/20101201/NEWS01/101201057/1320/MPSC-DTE-not-at-fault-in-wind-storm-fires

MPSC: DTE not at fault in wind storm fires

------------
I'm not sure if it is the MPSC or Freep that is laughable for letting this statement slide:

1. But the MPSC noted that Detroit Edison spends 26% more time tree-trimming in Detroit over the last five years than any other city and than it spent 14% more time on maintenance and operations of the system in Detroit than the rest of the region.
My commentary - Do they not care to consider area of land, number of lines or number of trees? I would venture to guess that Detroit has more than 26% more lines, trees and land than any other city in their system. Just stupid way to quantify their justification of service in Detroit. Sadly, the Freep just sucks it up.

[Blarf]

Lazy/ignorant writing is a norm for both the Freep, and the Det.

[Mikeg]

In general, the FP article fairly describes the conclusions of the MSPC Staff report. However, as noted in the comment by the original poster, in the fifth paragraph of the FP article, the reporter [[and/or her editor) is guilty of crafting a faulty summary of certain findings in the MSPC Staff report:

From page 19 of the MPSC report:

Detroit Edison’s process for scheduling vegetation management is the same system-wide. The Affected Area [the eight circuits in Detroit where the Sept 7th fires occurred], the city of Detroit, and the entire system are scheduled to be trimmed every five years. Miles of circuits are allocated to service centers proportional to their number of overhead miles. All circuits in the Affected Area have had line clearance performed within the last five years. On a per mile basis, over the last five years Detroit Edison spent approximately 26 percent more in the City of Detroit than the rest of the system.

From page 20:

[MPSC] Staff investigated the eight circuits in the Affected Area. This included pole top maintenance inspection, infrared inspection, and tree trimming. Recently, the Affected Area has had more frequent inspections than the rest of the system. During the last five years the inspection cycle has been 6.8 years for the Affected Area, 10.8 years for the City of Detroit and 11.5 years for the balance of the system.

The residential and commercial load in the city of Detroit is 7.4 percent of the system load. Approximately 9 percent of Detroit Edison’s overhead miles of lines are located in the city of Detroit. Staff compared the amount of money Detroit Edison spent on operations and maintenance [[O&M) in the city of Detroit versus O&M money spent on the rest of its system for last five years. Staff looked at it proportionally to the number of miles of electric lines in the city versus the rest of their system. During the last five years, staff found that Detroit Edison spent 14.5 percent more on O&M in the City of Detroit than on the rest of its system.

Here are some additional interesting observations and facts included in the 33 pages of the MSPC Staff report:

• Detroit Edison presently trims vegetation around Detroit Public Lighting Dept. [[PLD) lines that overlap with its own lines. Almost everywhere a Detroit Edison line exists, a similar electric line from the Detroit PLD exists. In addition, other lines owned by communication companies [[i.e., telephone, cable, etc.) run under the Detroit Edison wires. The PLD and communication companies do not have a tree trimming policy. The condition of their wires could have contributed to the large number of wire downs.
• Detroit Edison is responsible for maintaining its primary and secondary voltage pole-to-pole wires. The secondary wires do not get the same ten-foot clearance as the primary wires; they are only trimmed to a four-foot clearance. The pole-to-house lines [[service drops) go across customer’s yards and landscaping. Detroit Edison considers this area the customer’s responsibility. It trims trees in this area only to restore service.
• MPSC Staff observed in its three field trips to the Affected Area that the primary lines, which are the highest on the pole, appeared to be on Detroit Edison’s five year trimming cycle and well maintained. The secondary wires were more difficult to assess because they can be easily confused with other company’s wires. In addition, the secondary wires only have a four-foot clearance and growth occurs between the five year cycles. The growth varies depending on the tree species and when the last tree clearing was performed on that circuit. In general, Staff found that Detroit Edison secondary wires were also being trimmed properly. However, Staff observed that PLD’s wires were not as well cleared of trees as Detroit Edison’s. The alleyways are full of brush, and this is growing on the communication lines, which are lowest to the ground. Detroit Edison is currently the only company performing regular vegetation management of the power lines.
• Detroit Edison’s distribution wires and poles are adjacent to the alleyways which are small lanes in the middle of a residential block, at the rear of the yards. The city of Detroit has stopped maintaining these alleyways and left the responsibility of maintenance up to the homeowners. Trees and thick brush along with various types of grasses and tall weeds have grown extensively into the alleyways, making the alleyway impassable. Most brush appears to be of the invasive type that grows fast, but also contains a substantial amount of dead tree limbs. Also, the overgrown alleys have become dumping grounds for trash, trimmed brush and tree limbs from neighboring lots. If high winds caused electric lines to fall onto this dry fuel on September 7th, it could very easily have started a fire.
• Customers have noticed and expressed concern that the covering on electric lines becomes loose and dangles from the line. They also report the lines sometimes spark or arc. Staff has seen this on lines in other parts of the state, not only in Detroit. The condition is known as festooning. Festooning occurs when the weatherproof covering cracks and starts to fray. The covering is of a non-conductive material which when new will allow momentary contact without the sparking. However, the covering even when new has no specific insulation rating; therefore covered conductors are similar to and treated as a bare wire.
  Conductors that have become uncovered would arc or spark when casual or intermittent contact is made with trees or another wire. High winds are usually the cause of the casual contact. Even though it looks unsightly, festooning does not pose an unsafe condition. As long as the sparking is momentary or infrequent, it is not an unsafe condition. Detroit Edison has no policy to replace wires because they have a deteriorated covering. However, if the wires continue to spark, the utility should be notified and it can install spacers to prevent the wires from touching each other. Detroit Edison reports that it has not experienced reliability problems caused by festooning and is not aware of any wire down cases caused by festooning.

[pffft]

Wow, dangling wires that arc are called "festooning"...makes it seem festive, rather than dangerous and derelict.

[Mikeg]

Wow, dangling wires that arc are called "festooning"...makes it seem festive, rather than dangerous and derelict.

No, it's the worn protective covering that is dangling and which is called festooning, not the wires that carry the electricity.

Protective covering that is not worn or dangling will prevent arcing during momentary wind-driven contact between the conducting wires or trees. A brief contact and the resulting arc is not dangerous, as long as the conducting wires remain securely attached to the pole.

[pffft]

OK ...point is, the word is sort of ridiculously festive...

[Goose]

OK ...point is, the word is sort of ridiculously festive...

so is the word "gay" but many people have an aversion to being called it........

[jt1]

In general, the FP article fairly describes the conclusions of the MSPC Staff report. However, as noted in the comment by the original poster, in the fifth paragraph of the FP article, the reporter [[and/or her editor) is guilty of crafting a faulty summary of certain findings in the MSPC Staff report:

From page 19 of the MPSC report:

Detroit Edison’s process for scheduling vegetation management is the same system-wide. The Affected Area [the eight circuits in Detroit where the Sept 7th fires occurred], the city of Detroit, and the entire system are scheduled to be trimmed every five years. Miles of circuits are allocated to service centers proportional to their number of overhead miles. All circuits in the Affected Area have had line clearance performed within the last five years. On a per mile basis, over the last five years Detroit Edison spent approximately 26 percent more in the City of Detroit than the rest of the system.

From page 20:

[MPSC] Staff investigated the eight circuits in the Affected Area. This included pole top maintenance inspection, infrared inspection, and tree trimming. Recently, the Affected Area has had more frequent inspections than the rest of the system. During the last five years the inspection cycle has been 6.8 years for the Affected Area, 10.8 years for the City of Detroit and 11.5 years for the balance of the system.

The residential and commercial load in the city of Detroit is 7.4 percent of the system load. Approximately 9 percent of Detroit Edison’s overhead miles of lines are located in the city of Detroit. Staff compared the amount of money Detroit Edison spent on operations and maintenance [[O&M) in the city of Detroit versus O&M money spent on the rest of its system for last five years. Staff looked at it proportionally to the number of miles of electric lines in the city versus the rest of their system. During the last five years, staff found that Detroit Edison spent 14.5 percent more on O&M in the City of Detroit than on the rest of its system.

Here are some additional interesting observations and facts included in the 33 pages of the MSPC Staff report:

• Detroit Edison presently trims vegetation around Detroit Public Lighting Dept. [[PLD) lines that overlap with its own lines. Almost everywhere a Detroit Edison line exists, a similar electric line from the Detroit PLD exists. In addition, other lines owned by communication companies [[i.e., telephone, cable, etc.) run under the Detroit Edison wires. The PLD and communication companies do not have a tree trimming policy. The condition of their wires could have contributed to the large number of wire downs.
• Detroit Edison is responsible for maintaining its primary and secondary voltage pole-to-pole wires. The secondary wires do not get the same ten-foot clearance as the primary wires; they are only trimmed to a four-foot clearance. The pole-to-house lines [[service drops) go across customer’s yards and landscaping. Detroit Edison considers this area the customer’s responsibility. It trims trees in this area only to restore service.
• MPSC Staff observed in its three field trips to the Affected Area that the primary lines, which are the highest on the pole, appeared to be on Detroit Edison’s five year trimming cycle and well maintained. The secondary wires were more difficult to assess because they can be easily confused with other company’s wires. In addition, the secondary wires only have a four-foot clearance and growth occurs between the five year cycles. The growth varies depending on the tree species and when the last tree clearing was performed on that circuit. In general, Staff found that Detroit Edison secondary wires were also being trimmed properly. However, Staff observed that PLD’s wires were not as well cleared of trees as Detroit Edison’s. The alleyways are full of brush, and this is growing on the communication lines, which are lowest to the ground. Detroit Edison is currently the only company performing regular vegetation management of the power lines.
• Detroit Edison’s distribution wires and poles are adjacent to the alleyways which are small lanes in the middle of a residential block, at the rear of the yards. The city of Detroit has stopped maintaining these alleyways and left the responsibility of maintenance up to the homeowners. Trees and thick brush along with various types of grasses and tall weeds have grown extensively into the alleyways, making the alleyway impassable. Most brush appears to be of the invasive type that grows fast, but also contains a substantial amount of dead tree limbs. Also, the overgrown alleys have become dumping grounds for trash, trimmed brush and tree limbs from neighboring lots. If high winds caused electric lines to fall onto this dry fuel on September 7th, it could very easily have started a fire.
• Customers have noticed and expressed concern that the covering on electric lines becomes loose and dangles from the line. They also report the lines sometimes spark or arc. Staff has seen this on lines in other parts of the state, not only in Detroit. The condition is known as festooning. Festooning occurs when the weatherproof covering cracks and starts to fray. The covering is of a non-conductive material which when new will allow momentary contact without the sparking. However, the covering even when new has no specific insulation rating; therefore covered conductors are similar to and treated as a bare wire.
  Conductors that have become uncovered would arc or spark when casual or intermittent contact is made with trees or another wire. High winds are usually the cause of the casual contact. Even though it looks unsightly, festooning does not pose an unsafe condition. As long as the sparking is momentary or infrequent, it is not an unsafe condition. Detroit Edison has no policy to replace wires because they have a deteriorated covering. However, if the wires continue to spark, the utility should be notified and it can install spacers to prevent the wires from touching each other. Detroit Edison reports that it has not experienced reliability problems caused by festooning and is not aware of any wire down cases caused by festooning.

Mike - Thanks for the info from the actual report. Certainly paints a very different picture than the Freep story.

[Carey]

How is that so different from what the Free Press reported? The only difference seems to be the reporter didn't get into the specifics about how the commission measured in a comparative way. Isn't that understood? I supposes she could have telegraphed that in some brief way..

More importantly, if Edison isn't responsible for the fires, who or what is? My vote is not enough fire apparatus and personnel to handle a very busy day. The city will never acknowledge it doesn't have enough resources.
Hasn't city council asked for a report from the DFD on the fires?
The commission report, which is available on the commission website, says on page 10 the DFD handled 108 fires that day -- 73 more than an average day.

[Mikeg]

How is that so different from what the Free Press reported? The only difference seems to be the reporter didn't get into the specifics about how the commission measured in a comparative way. Isn't that understood?

There are two comparisons contained in the 5th paragraph of the on-line FP article:

1. Detroit Edison spends 26% more time tree-trimming in Detroit over the last five years than any other city
2. they spent 14% more time on maintenance and operations of the system in Detroit than the rest of the region.

Based on the MSPC report, a more accurate and logical pair of comparison should read like this:

Compared to the rest of its service area over the last five years, Detroit Edison spent

1. 26% more per mile of overhead circuit line on tree-trimming around its lines in Detroit
   
2. 14% more per mile of overhead circuit line on the maintenance and operation of its lines in Detroit
   

More importantly, if Edison isn't responsible for the fires, who or what is?

The on-line FP headline is a little misleading: "MPSC: DTE not at fault in wind storm fires". The article itself states that the MSPC report found only that
"Detroit Edison wasn’t negligent in how it handled hundreds of downed wires that were felled Sept. 7 during a wind storm in Detroit that transformed into dozens of fires across the city...."

It further states that "

"...... the root cause of the fires hasn’t been determined yet by the Detroit Fire Department...."

Interestingly, the version of this article that appeared in the print edition was quite different. The headline was "Probe: Edison Not Negligent in Fires" and it made no mention of any operation, maintenance or tree-trimming statistics.

[dookie joe]

Well, at least the Free Press didn't take credit for the MPSC report. From the way they've been injecting themselves into their stories lately, I fully expected to read, "The Michigan Public Service Commission launched an investigation into DTE's tree-trimming policies after the Free Press reported that fires swept through the city."

I mean, seriously -- nary a day goes by where they don't take credit for something. In almost all their stories about the consent decree, they claim to have caused it. A recent example from just this week:

http://www.freep.com/article/2010112...ith-Kilpatrick

The ordered reforms grew out of a Free Press series showing Detroit Police had a high rate of civilian shootings and that the investigations were often questionable

That's a complete and utter lie. The Michigan Citizen, Metro Times and Detroit News all wrote stories chronicling the huge number of police shootings BEFORE the Freep ran their series.

Here's what the Metro Times News Hits had to say about the matter when the Freep tried to take credit for causing the consent decree back in 2003:

At the risk of sounding peevish, News Hits can't let a recent column by Free Press public editor John X. Miller pass without comment. As the equivalent of an ombudsman, Miller serves as the paper's conscience, dealing with reader complaints and pointing out problems in coverage when they arise. But in a piece published June 16, Miller instead chose to toot the Freep's horn.

He began by noting the plagiarism scandal at the New York Times, and suggested the best way to steady journalism's "wobbly pedestal" was through producing quality work. As an example of the results that can be achieved, he cited the recent U.S. Justice Department decision to appoint a monitor overseeing reform of the Detroit Police Department.

If Miller is truly interested in the public's perception of journalists, however, he might start by being a bit more forthright when claiming credit for his paper.

For starters, the Freep was late to the game when it came to covering the problem of Detroit police officers gunning down city residents. The first to take a serious look at the outrage was the Michigan Citizen, whose reporter Diane Bukowski in early 2001 detailed the record of Officer Eugene Brown, who had killed three people during his first seven years on the force. Metro Times' own Ann Mullen pushed the story further with an exposé detailing how the department handled investigations of officers involved in shootings [["Under the Gun," Metro Times, April 5-11, 2000). Hell, even the Detroit News beat the Freep to the punch. And it took the Freep more than a year to follow up on Mullen's report about deaths in Detroit jails — another scandal the Justice Department addressed.

That's not to say the Freep didn't do outstanding work. It did. It's just that Miller's claim strikes us as a bit disingenuous, making it appear his paper is alone in deserving the credit. Miller disagrees, saying he doesn't believe that's the impression conveyed.

You can decide for yourself. Here's exactly what Miller wrote on June 16:

"If not for the dogged investigative reporting by several Free Press journalists, the department's monumental abuses might well continue, invisible to scrutiny."

But there is a bigger point. None of the media involved in covering this issue was anywhere near as dogged as the Coalition Against Police Brutality, a group founded by the relatives of police shooting victims. They approached the City Council in 1998 about the problem, held demonstrations, contacted Amnesty International and begged reporters to disclose information that they were digging up. They are the real heroes, people like Arnetta Grable and Herman Vallery, both of whom lost sons to police bullets.

"Mr. Miller is projecting a very narrow perspective," says Ron Scott, spokesman for the Coalition. "He's missing the point."

"I was writing about journalism," says Miller, adding, "Lots of people were
involved. I didn't include everything everyone else had done, but I didn't say we were exclusively involved."

Oh. Pardon our inference.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Detroiters/message/4603

The horn-tooting has gotten much louder since the Freep broke the text message scandal. And even with that story, in which they were certainly an important catalyst, they've been disingenuous about their involvement -- and that's being kind.

DATELINE: Dallas, Nov. 1963:

Lee Harvey Oswald has been arrested after the Free Press reported that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.