Nashville Gas Emergency Plan Meeting was Held on March 30
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By Todd Marver
tmarver@nashnews.net
The City of Nashville hosted its 43rd annual gas emergency plan meeting on Thursday, March 30 at American Legion Hall.
Utility Supervisor Blaine Middleton said that in 15 years, there have only been two hits on a gas line.
“It was nobody from our staff; it was a pouring crew…The proof is in the pudding as far as how this (plan) has made this town safer and we’ve gotten by with no serious accidents,” he said.
Mark Holdener of USDI spoke at the meeting. He was at Ameren for 23 years before he came to USDI. USDI is the city’s engineering firm. He gave kudos to Nashville for only having two hits in 15 years.
“That’s pretty amazing. I’ve seen a lot of hits out there,” he said.
Holdener said the object of the game is for gas employees to go home the way they came into work, whether they are digging along the road or have barricades up inconveniencing people.
“There’s a reason for that. It’s for their safety. Set up a safe barrier for yourself. I cannot emphasize that enough. You hear of accidents out there where people just plow into road crews working. These phones are a big distraction,” he said.
Holdener said whenever working in a gas system, it takes time because there are procedures and employees have to be very careful.
Holdener said a big problem right now is the federal government released all its money for fiber to be installed in small towns. He said he runs into this a lot, especially up north near Springfield and three contractors are working in a town at one time installing fiber.
“That’s a lot going on in a small town and a lot of locates going on. It’s amazing that there’s that much work going on in small towns. They can’t get anything else done. They’re always doing locates or watching them dig. If there’s a third party working in your town and if they’re crossing your lines, be there and watch them and make sure they don’t hit you,” he said.
Nashville has 31 miles of main, 1,623 services and is served by the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Gas employees install and maintain all gas facilities. The gas is transported from wells in the gulf region and piped to the area through the NGPL pipeline. The gas is delivered at high pressures – 600 to 800 psig (pounds per square gauge). There is an NGPL station located four miles northeast of town on Richview Road. Nashville operates a high-pressure main at 150 psig. The city’s regulator stations reduce the pressure to 16-20 psig for delivery to the distribution system. The stations are located at the sewer plant on Route 127 and Route 127 at Enterprise Drive.
Service regulators reduce pressure to a quarter pound at meter sets of residential customers. Holdener said in gas terms this is seven inches of water.
As far as natural gas properties, Holdener said methane is 92-95%, ethane is 2-3%, propane is 2-3% and butane is 2-3%.
“One thing they’re pushing right now besides all the windmills is they’re getting a lot of methane off of animal manure. I’ve worked on projects where they’re getting landfill methane, pig farms and dairy farms. They’re getting methane off all that stuff now. The technology is there,” he said.
Holdener said carbon monoxide is a byproduct of incomplete combustion. He said carbon monoxide is toxic; replaces the oxygen in the blood; is slightly lighter than air generally speaking; and is odorless, colorless and deadly in small amounts. He said carbon monoxide symptoms include headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, flu like symptoms, burning eyes, chest pains and confusion.
In the event of a natural gas emergency, the City of Nashville will follow their emergency plan. An emergency is regarded as any incident, report, etc. which requires the immediate response of a city gas employee. Holdener said some of the things they can encounter include a customer leak complaint, fire, explosion, leakage, damage to a facility and loss of service.
In the event of a natural gas emergency requiring additional assistance, the city will go to its emergency number list. City employees have certain responsibilities during the active emergency situation.
The utility superintendent is responsible for coordinating maps, records, tools, equipment and communications; and coordinating with appropriate emergency and public officials to properly respond to the emergency.
The responsibilities for the gas service employees are to be available and responsive to direction from the utility superintendent; be aware of the location of trucks, tools and equipment necessary in emergency response; take actions that protect life first, then property; ensure safety rules and regulations are followed; and close main line valves, if required.
The responsibilities of the utility secretary are to make all emergency forms and printed material available for distribution; inform radio and TV stations of special news releases, as directed; answer incoming emergency phone calls; provide information for telephone answering personnel for customer guidance; and inform police and fire departments of the nature and extent of emergency so that a coordinated response can be made as directed by the superintendent.
In the emergency plan, the city has procedures for almost any situation that can arise, including investigating leak complaints, total gas outage, emergency turnoffs and turnons, third party damage, interruption of service, fires, explosions, natural disasters and loss of pressure or supply.
As far as where emergency services fit in with this plan, responsibilities of gas utility are to protect life then property, eliminate ignition sources, determine source of a gas leak, operate necessary valves to eliminate supply of gas to a leak and make the area safe.
When on scene, the fire department is in charge of the incident. Responsibilities of the fire department are to assist in evacuation of homes and buildings; extinguish the fire, if not gas fed; and to make the area safe.
Holdener said if there is still a leak when putting a fire out that is gas fed, they don’t know where the fumes are going to go and a neighboring house could catch on fire.
The police department’s responsibility is to control access to the affected area.
Holdener said he can’t emphasize that enough. He said when he was with Ameren, there was a fire at R.P. Lumber in Edwardsville.
“A storage shed caught on fire and they had gas going to it. The firemen wanted to put the fire out, but the gas riser where the meter was was just blowing fire out. They wanted to put the fire out at the gas riser, but were told not to due to the fact that the gas would have went somewhere else then. If the wind was going right, it might have went to who knows where. Just let it burn and control it until the gas guys can get the valve shut off somewhere,” he said.
Holdener said to coordinate with the gas employees and that they have the maps and know where everything goes.
“Having that relationship is so important. Communication is everything and that would fall on Blaine (Middleton) on communication,” he said.
