( CNN ) -- Gov . Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the White House to make a federal disaster declaration in the aftermath of last week 's pipeline explosion and fire in San Bruno , California , his office said Wednesday . `` This event has destroyed and caused serious damages to homes , infrastructure , and other public facilities in San Mateo County , '' Schwarzenegger said in a letter to President Obama . `` The response and recovery costs for this event are estimated at nearly $ 10.4 million . '' A disaster declaration from the White House would free federal funds to cover those costs . The request came as a consumer watchdog group said pipeline owner Pacific Gas & Electric had planned in 2009 to replace a section of its gas pipeline just a couple of miles from the section that exploded , but never spent the $ 5 million in rate increases to do the work . TURN [ The Utility Reform Network ] also said the utility asked for another $ 5 million for the same project in 2009 -- the year it should have completed the work it has n't even started -- saying it would n't be completed until 2013 . `` The money was spent on what they call higher priority work , '' said TURN senior attorney Mike Florio . `` You ca n't track the dollars one by one , but we do know they spent $ 62 million more on management incentive business than they had forecast in 2009 , '' he said . `` They spent $ 60 million on going back and re-doing gas leak surveys that they had botched elsewhere on their system . '' PG & E responded that it `` is committed to performing the work necessary to assure the safety of its gas transmission system . '' The utility said it had identified the line section as a `` high priority project '' in the earlier transmission rate filing , but `` rescheduled the project '' after an updated assessment in 2009 . But the company did not explain why it needed an additional $ 5 million and three years to complete repairs on a section it said , in its most recent rate filing , was in the top 100 risks for failure . `` Coupled with the consequences of failure of this section of pipeline , the likelihood of a failure makes the risk of a failure at this location unacceptably high , '' the company said in that filing . TURN officials think they know where some of the money went -- in 2009 , the year PG & E did n't spend $ 5 million on fixing the pipeline , the company did spend $ 5 million on bonuses for six top executives . `` The company 's priorities appear to be skewed , '' TURN executive director Mark Toney said . The line that exploded in San Bruno was laid down in 1948 , as was the section PG & E was supposed to replace . In the first filing , the utility noted that the `` vintage 30-inch pipeline '' runs through `` several High Consequence Areas . '' In the second , it said the pipeline was `` located in a heavily urbanized area . '' Four people were killed in the September 9 explosion and fire in the San Francisco suburb , and three are still missing . The blast blew in the doors of a grocery store a quarter-mile ( 400 meters ) away , and the explosion and resulting fire injured 52 people and destroyed 37 homes . The explosion blew a 28-foot section of the pipeline 100 feet in the air . In the filing documents provided by TURN , the section of pipe to be replaced is identified as in the top 100 for highest risks of failure . Since exact locations of pipelines are generally kept secret because of terrorism threats , residents may not even know they live near one until it 's too late . `` If they fixed that section that they said wanted to fix maybe they would have found something that led them to look a mile or two south of there , '' Florio said . `` We do n't know that . We do know that the project was slated for 2009 . It did n't get done . Now they 're proposing to do it again in 2013 . '' The California Public Utilities Commission has not made a decision on this latest increase request . PG & E has agreed to set up a $ 100 million fund to help rebuild parts of San Bruno . Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 10pm ET . For the latest from AC360° click here .
A disaster declaration frees federal funds to pick up some of the tab . Watchdog got $ 5 million to replace pipeline in 2009 . PG & E says it 's `` committed '' to `` the safety of its gas transmission system '' PG & E group says Pacific Gas & Electric spent $ 5 million in bonuses in 2009 .