SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — Just off Silver Avenue in South Salt Lake sits Kathy Smith’s House and her vegetable garden full of onions, carrots, and beets.
But across the street sits debris from Sunday night's gas leak that caused hundreds to be evacuated from the neighborhood, including Kathy.
“I heard a big boom, and so I thought there was a car accident in front of my house," Smith recalled. "Then I went to the kitchen sink and I saw the fire at the end of the street.”
Smith thought the fire would be put out in just a few hours, but a knock on her door told her otherwise.
“A fireman stopped me and said, 'You can’t be on the street. There’s a natural gas line under the street, and therefore, the whole block can blow up,'” Smith said.
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So, why didn’t that happen? Bill Caram, the Executive Director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, explained.
“Often when we see an explosion, what’s happened is, you have an enclosed space where the methane or the natural gas has been accumulating for some time. If it’s out in the open, methane is lighter than air and it will dissipate. So that’s often when you see a singular flame, versus an explosion,” he shared.
Bill Caram said there are some potential risks that companies look at in the pipe systems, such as aging, corrosion, or cracking. While operators are required to do regular leak surveys, Caram says federal regulations are not that strict when it comes to leak detection and repair.
“There’s no standards as to what type of equipment they need to use," explained Caram. "How sensitive, accurate, or reliable that equipment is, so we don’t have a lot of consistency operator to operator, community to community.”
The director of the Utah Division of Public Utilities, Chris Parker said Enbridge Gas has an aggressive infrastructure replacement program for their distribution lines. He added that they help set an annual budget that the company can spend on aging infrastructure.
Parker said Utah participates in the Interstate Natural Gas Program, and they do regular audits and field work to assure things are running smoothly. Over the past several years, he said their audits have had perfect scores
Educating the public can help stop a leak from getting any worse.
“Using your nose," said Daren Anderson with Black Diamond Experts. "If the customer smells something, of course, they know there’s a problem. We have different tools to find the problem, we have meters that’ll beep the closer you get to it, the more the leak is happening.”
Back on Silver Avenue, the streets are now marked with spray paint to outline the work that Enbridge is currently doing. As for Kathy Smith, she says she will continue to tend to her garden because she’s grateful it’s still there.
“I didn’t know if I was going to have a house to come back to, but fortunately I do.”
