Learn from the pros
Peoples Natural Gas employee training on Gas 101
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Natural gas. It’s a fuel that few Pittsburghers can ignore even if they try. Natural gas. It’s a fuel that few Pittsburghers can ignore even if they try.
In southwestern Pennsylvania, companies search and drill for it, large pipelines carry it long distances, smaller pipelines tap it to send to cities and towns. Underground storage facilities keep it in case of a cold winter. And as drillers have produced so much gas through fracking, the fuel has gotten cheaper and cheaper.
But how much do consumers, who may use natural gas to cook and heat their homes, really know about natural gas? Chad Dochinez, senior safety and training specialist for North Shore-based Peoples Natural Gas — self-described “gas ninja” and a walking encyclopedia of natural gas trivia — said he encounters misconceptions all the time.
Peoples, the largest gas utility in the state with 700,000 customers in Western Pennsylvania, recently invited the Post-Gazette to go through its employee training program at its training center in McKeesport. Here is what reporters learned and what consumers should know:
Why does my natural gas have a rottenegg smell?
Natural gas is odorless substance, once it’s stripped of impurities. To immediately detect leaks, gas utilities are required to add odorizers that are distinctive from anything else. (Well, unless you have a carton of rotten eggs lying around.) Peoples adds a pungent duo of chemicals called mercaptan and thiothane to its gas supply in extremely small doses — just half a pound per million cubic feet of gas. The smell test required by law is that the average person must be able to easily detect gas when its concentration in the air is less than 1 percent.
What should I do if I smell gas?
Get out and call the gas company or 911. Don’t try to ventilate the premises. At one point, people were advised to air out the house by opening doors and windows, but that could drive natural gas concentrations into a dangerous range. Here’s why:
Gas is very combustible, right?
Not really. In order to ignite, the gas concentration in the air must be roughly between 5 percent and 15 percent. Below or above that range, no amount of spark will set it on fire. Most of the time, when Peoples is called out for a leak because a customer smells the odor injected into the gas stream, the concentration of gas in the air is far below 5 percent. Still, Peoples advises customers to call if they smell gas.
What’s in natural gas?
Dead things. Mostly methane, with a little bit of ethane, butane, propane and a few other “anes.” The biproducts are water vapor and carbon dioxide. The gas used in an average home in this part of the U.S. in the winter — for heating, hot water, cooking — puts out a TON of water a month. Some of that vents into your house. And that’s OK. It’s just water.
Why do gas utilities dig up pipes in so many neighborhoods?
Peoples, like other gas utilities across the country, once put nothing but bare cast iron and steel pipes in the ground to carry gas to customers. After decades of corrosion, this aging infrastructure needs to be replaced. Street by street, Peoples is replacing its metal pipes with flexible plastic pipes. They’re easier to handle and join together, but more easily damaged by hits during excavations. Always remember to call 811 before you disturb the earth.
Who gave you permission to be on my property?
You, the customer, did when you first signed up for natural gas service. In most cases, Peoples owns a service line that comes off its main into your property and connects to your service line. It also owns the meter that measures the gas you consume. The company is responsible for both of those pieces. And while it’s not People’s responsibility and should not be abused, the gas company will also come to your house and check that your gas appliances are working properly.
Why hasn’t the gas company fixed the sidewalk it tore up months ago?
If you’re asking this question in the winter, it’s because there’s no asphalt. Asphalt plants don’t operate in the winter months so any projects that require paving have to wait until the spring. If Peoples has to dig up a road — either for its pipeline replacement program, to connect a new customer,