Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Atmos defends response time to McKinney gas leak

By Brett Ryder of McKinneyNews.net

Brett Ryder

Black bore bit pierces orange gas main.

MCKINNEY — The two gas leak blasts that rocked East McKinney Friday evening were chalked up to human error Tuesday morning at a press conference held by Atmos Energy.

John Paris, president of Atmos Energy’s mid-Texas division, spoke for about 25 minutes discussing updates to Friday afternoon’s blast time line as well as Atmos’ response to what Paris referred to as an abnormal and unfortunate sequence of events.

The most glaring time line revision involves the lapse of time between the gas line strike and the ensuing explosions.

Originally, it was reported that a mere six minutes expired between strike and explosion. That figure has now been advanced to at least 45 minutes, a figure that corroborates area residents’ insistence that a strong smell of gas permeated the neighborhood at least 30 minutes prior to the two explosions.

Paris was adamant that Atmos followed standard industry practice when it was notified of the leak. A technician was dispatched to the sight, performed an expeditious survey of the scene, and established a secure perimeter – all of this while maintaining continual visual contact with the leak.

Paris said the technician looked for a gas “migration pattern” by accessing street sewer lines. No gas was detected. Street manhole covers were opened as a precautionary ventilation measure.

Brett Ryder

The aftermath.

“At no time did we get a reading that gas was moving in the sewer lines,” Paris said.

Even with no gas detected at street level, Paris said he suspects there must have been gas present in the sewer lines connecting the homes to the street for an explosion to have occurred so quickly.

Paris said about 20 gas line breaches occur in the Metroplex every day. To dial 911 and evacuate every time a gas strike occurred would be unwarranted, he said.

Paris also cited inconvenience as a reason for not turning off gas to an entire neighborhood for routine maintenance. It’s not standard practice, he said.

“Under normal circumstances,” Paris said gas would not travel as far and as quickly as it did late Friday afternoon.

Paris said Atmos will continue to investigate the blasts and review company response policy and procedure.

“[Atmos is] obligated to learn and prevent this in the future,” he said.

Still, Paris said he thought the company's 36-minute response time "pretty normal."

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