AFFECTED TULARE COUNTY CUSTOMERS
Southern California Gas Co replaced an 800 ft section of a major gas pipeline that supplies Tulare County after a routine inspection found problems. The gas company took the pipeline in question off line and installed an 800 ft bypass pipe says Andrew Lockman,manager of Emergency Services for Tulare County.
“My understanding is that they dealt withe problem by taking the pressure off and installing a bypass” says Lockman ,who adds around a dozen large gas customers,industrial plants, were effected by a supply problem for about a week with repairs completed in the past few days. All gas customers are now able to return to normal operations.
Lockman says the work by SoCal Gas was done”out of an abundance of caution” remembering with at happened with PG&E and the town of San Bruno in 2010 when a 30 inch gas pipe exploded.
SoCal Gas has a major gas pipeline that supplies Tulare County from Kern County near Delano where the problem pipe was discovered. Tulare County is the furthest north in the company’s service territory.In the interim, some gas supplies came from PG&E.
“We were advised in case residents of Tulare County were going to be without natural gas when there were freezing temperatures” Lockman says. Lockman has been advising local government officials around the county about the incident in the past week.
Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) is the nation’s largest natural gas distribution utility, serving a population of 20.9 million consumers through 5.8 million gas meters in more than 500 communities. The company’s service territory encompasses approximately 20,000 square miles of diverse terrain throughout Central and Southern California, from Visalia to the Mexican border.