Natural Gas Smell 7th and Silver

[danno]

We live in the 1700 block of Silver and noticed a slight smell of Natural Gas yesterday while alking the dogs.  Didn't think much of it till I was taking out the trash this morning and we could smell it in the street in the middle of the block.

We called TECO to report it and 45 minutes later guy shows up with a pissy attitude asking why we didn't report it yesterday.  We told him it was just after it had rained and we weren't sure if the smell was natural gas ot just that petroleum smeel you get off of the street after a light rain.  Anyhow the guy moped around in the street in front of the house with the detector, knocked on the door said he couldn't pick anything up and couldn't smell anything.  We could both still smell it while standing in the street in front of the house.  We asked him if he checked on the corner and he advised nobody told him about the corner, so he drove down there walked arround then drove off.

The guy was obviously annoyed he had to come out on a Holiday Monday morning.  Looked and talked to us like we were crazy.  We even had house guest that left for the airport this morning and could smell it.

If anybody happend to be passing could they have a sniff and if they smell it please call TECO?  I will call again if it is still noticeable. 1-877-832-6747

[Debbie Thompson]

Years ago, we kept smelling natural gas around my mom's home on the Southside, and eventually when Teco dug up the line outside her window, there was a huge hole in it.  They need to check the line out if you are sure it's a natural gas smell.

[Lunican]

You can also call the fire dept to check it out. They should have a detector.

[Springfielder]

About a year or so ago, I kept smelling that natural gas smell by the corner of 5th & Walnut. I called and reported it several times, as it didn't go away and it lasted for days. The one JEA guy that finally came out pretty much treated me the same way, was kind of snotty and acted annoyed, then told me it was gases coming up from the drain. I told him that I felt he was mistaken but he drove off. Two days later JEA was out, had almost the entire intersection dug...guess why...gas leak!

[danno]

This guy was really a butt head.  I left for work and mrs danno says he was rude to her as well, treated her like she was crazy.

[iloveionia]

Mr. Mopy Butthead likely gets double or triple time and a half for coming out on a Federal Holiday.  One would think he'd be appreciative for the work and added pay.

[KuroiKetsunoHana]

i noticed the same thing sunday, but thought it was my imagination--i didn't smell anything there last night, though.

[Overstreet]

Besides holes inlines you need to think gas regulators and force main vents. The pressure regulators on both the point of use and the line regulators vent from time to time. Then .............they stop.  Sanitary force mains also vent and smell similar to the odor they add to natural gas lines.  Natural gas is odorless.

I was building on the site of an old Atlanta Gas Lite company area. After several calls and plenty of fire department trips Atlanta Gas Lite brought out a mini hoe and dug up the area. What they found was a partial five gallon can of the odor they install in the line. It was burried and everytime we'd dig a footing it would release some odor through the ground. Phew....... Probably not the Springfield problem but a good story.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

If I'm not mistaken, natural gas doesn't have a smell (or is it propane), so they add a sulfur smelling chemical so that if there is a leak, you will know.  You may have just smelled something sulfur-ish and thought it to be the NG - that's why his detector wouldn't pick up anything.  Might even explain why he didn't 'smell' the same thing you were since he's around it all the time.

[danno]

I haven't smelt it since Monday.  It is the same smell as if I had a burner on the stove that didn't light.  We shall see if it comes back and if it does I hope the same guy has to come out.

[BridgeTroll]

Based on what just happened in San Bruno california... If you are smelling it you need to make sure they investigate properly...

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/PGE-Investigating-Complaints-of-Gas-Smell-in-San-Bruno-102625569.html

PUC, PG&E Investigate Complaints of Gas Prior to Explosion
By JESSICA GREENE and LORI PREUITT
Updated 9:50 PM PDT, Fri, Sep 10, 2010

As homes still smoldered in a San Bruno neighborhood after a gas line ruptured and sparked a massive inferno Thursday, residents in the area said they had complained about a gas smell for weeks.

People who live in the in the Crestmoore neighborhood told reporters thay had complained to Pacific Gas and Electric about the smell of gas in the area and wondered why the utility had apparently not done anything about it.  Late Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission established a toll-free number and an email address for anyone who has information on a natural gas smell in the San Bruno area in the weeks before Sept. 9 explosion.  The number is 800-789-0550 and the email address is SBFire@cpuc.ca.gov.

MSNBC posted an article that said steel gas mains are drawing the attention of regulators across the country. It sites failure of pipes like the one here triggering action in other states. A map of pipelines across the country is included.

PG&E President Chris Johns said at a news conference Friday morning that they are looking into the reports and will go over their records from the phone calls about the complaints.

"Right now, we haven't got confirmation about that, but we have records that we are going back right this minute to try to confirm what exactly those phone calls look like and when they occurred, and we will report back as soon as we know something," Johns said.

Tim Guiterrez, who lives in the neighborhood, said he was one of those who told PG&E about a distinct smell of gas. Guiterrez said a representative from the utility was in the neighborhood last week and told people to shut their garage doors and stay inside as they looked into the complaint.

Waiting in the wings of all the investigations are the victims desperate to know if their homes survived the flames.

State Assemblyman Jerry Hill, who represents San Bruno, also heard reports from people who says they had alerted the utility of gas odors in the neighborhood before the disaster.  Hill says the residents "deserve to know if PG&E used the correct procedures" leading up to the explosion.

State Senators Alex Padilla and Mark Leno also jumped into the investigation fray. They announced plans for a hearing into the cause of the explosion.  They also say they want to see how similar events can be prevented in the future. Padilla is chair of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee and Senator Leno is chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee. The senate review is supposed to begin immediately with hearing scheduled for next week.

"This horrible accident is a wake-up call that California needs to do more to protect the public and meet the highest safety standards.  I look forward to an in-depth review into what caused this tragedy and what lawmakers and regulators can do to prevent similar tragedies in the future," Padilla said.

Dozens of homes caught fire in quick succession at 6:15 p.m. Many residents said they ran for their lives from a wall of flame and raining asphalt.

The utility that operates the 30-inch diameter line said it was trying to find out what caused the steel gas pipe to rupture and ignite. Federal pipeline safety inspectors were also on the scene Friday afternoon.  "It was just an amazing scene of destruction," National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman Christopher Hart told the Associated Press.

By Friday evening state officials said In all, 38 homes were destroyed. That number is down from the 52 homes listed as destroyed late Thursday night.  Seven more suffered serious damage and dozens more had some damage. The fire zone spanned 15 acres. A Google representative alerted NBC to this map which marks the firelines.

Friday night state officials stood firm on the death toll.  They said four people were dead. They also said 52 patients were treated for burns and smoke inhalation; four of them suffered critical burns. Four firefighters were also treated for smoke inhalation.

Fire crews went door to door Friday searching for more victims. They said some of the homes were still too hot to search and would have to wait until Saturday.


From the Associated Press:

Compared to the tens of thousands of miles of gas pipelines across the country, accidents are relatively rare.

In 2009, there were 163 significant accidents involving natural gas pipelines, killing 10 people and injuring 59.

Transmission lines like the one that burst in San Bruno deliver natural gas from its source to distribution lines, which then carry it into neighborhoods before branching off into homes.

Over the past two decades, federal officials tallied 2,840 significant gas pipeline accidents nationwide -- including 992 in which someone was killed or required hospitalization, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Those accidents killed 323 people and injured 1,372.

Experts say the nation's 296,000 miles of onshore natural-gas lines routinely suffer breakdowns and failures.

More than 60 percent of the lines are 40 years old or older and almost half were installed in the 1950s and 1960s, according to a recent analysis by the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Bellingham, Wash.

Most of the older pipelines lack anticorrosion coatings that are prevalent in the industry today, said Carl Weimer, executive director of the trust, which was set up following a 1999 explosion that killed three people in Bellingham.

[danno]

Finally after calling once a week for the past few weeks and having the dude look at me like I am crazy, Teco are out and are digging a hole between the sidewalk and the street.