Gas Line

   / Gas Line #1  

DougM

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2002
Messages
451
Location
Northeast Ohio
Tractor
GC 2310
There is a gas supply line that runs across my land and it was to be located here BUT it was located THERE and I ws digging a ditch buy my garage and now the is a orange gas line in two pcs where it was not to be .... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
Gas was about 140 lbs of presure I went to the supply line shut off valve and it does not work the way it is to ..

So I bend the hose back on its shelf where it was broken and tape it so it will stay ..
Gas line people will be out tommorow to fix it..
My 2310 MF does all I asked it to do but it should know better then to listen to me /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Gas Line #2  
They never are where they say that they are..... it happens all the time. Have them mark it out and do some test holes when they come to fix it. Tell them that it must be properly identified on its entire length of the property because you will be doing some extensive digging and don't want an explosion because of their inability to locate the utility properly. I am surprised that they are waiting till daylight to come. Around here, the slightest smell of gas leaking will bring out the troops to find where it is coming from. What I didn't know about natural gas until we had a problem is that black iron pipe will rust out from the inside to the outside as a result of natural gas. The gas company said that it should be replaced every 20 years even if it isn't leaking.
 
   / Gas Line #3  
I was "hand-digging" in the marked area near my natural gas line, and was surprised to find it only about 10" deep. I was expecting it to be about 24" deep. I nicked it with the shovel, but it did not appear to be leaking, but I called anyway.

The gas company sent a guy out that same evening, he arrived around 9:30 pm. Checked it with some soap and an electronic sniffer and said that it would be fine.

I told him that I felt like I had cried wolf because there was little danger from a slow leak out in the middle of the yard.

The guy disagreed, saying that there is significant danger. The leaking gas tends to follow the looser, disturbed dirt in the trench. If its capped over by some damper soil and turf on top, the gas can diffuse all the way to the house, and perhaps enter where the pipe goes through the foundation wall. Some entire houses have exploded/burned that way.

Made me glad I called, even though it seemed silly at the time.

- Rick
 
   / Gas Line #4  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( There is a gas supply line that runs across my land and it was to be located here BUT it was located THERE and I ws digging a ditch buy my garage and now the is a orange gas line in two pcs where it was not to be .... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
)</font>

Wow! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif There is still clothing stuck up in trees in the next Town over from me from when a Doctor with a back hoe hit his gas main while fixing a walkway and blew his entire house to bits a few years back. Luck was with you! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
   / Gas Line #5  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( the gas can diffuse all the way to the house, and perhaps enter where the pipe goes through the foundation wall )</font>

It can sometimes follow the pipe even in soil that has not been disturbed in years. When I was doing gas leakage surveys, I found a very dangerous level of gas under one house when the leak was actually over 50' away under the street in front of the house.
 
   / Gas Line #6  
The plastic gas lines are supposed to have tracer lines trenched in with them to aid in location.

Plain pipe can corrode from either side depending on the differences in soil potential. Interior corrosion is usually the result of a little entrained water and perhaps a smidgen or two of H2S forming scale nodules at points where there may be a slight imperfection in the pipe material grain boundaries. Bacteria go to work under the scale [ can't remember proper name] formed on the inside of the pipe. Results in a pockmarked surface ending in little pin holes that get bigger. Later resembles Henskin.

It is for this type of incident that diesel engines working around gas systems may be required to have a Positive Air Shutoff.

Egon
 
   / Gas Line #7  
It happens too often down here.

There are spot ads on local TV channels that state "call before you dig" 800 numbers and now warning signs with a backhoe icon with the same "Before you dig - statement to call the 800 number.

AND

There are miles of very old pipe, capped and abandoned And not indicated on platt or survey maps. Some still contain H2s04 (hydrogen sulfide gas). Deadly, invisable and oderless.
 
   / Gas Line #8  
H2S is only odorless in high concentrations because you are down before the smell hits.

Egon
 
   / Gas Line #9  
I'm rusty on my chemistry, but isn't H2SO4 sulphuric acid in aqueous form and H2S is hydrogen sulphide in a gaseous state? I guess hydrogen sulphide gas could react with entrained water and form sulphuric acid - which would eat through the walls of metallic pipe. Sorry for the ramble, I'm thinking as I'm writing...
 
   / Gas Line #10  
The gas company is responsible to be within 18" of the gas line when marking with the yellow flags.
Most Plastic lines have a yellow tracer wire on it that can be picked up by a machine that is used to locate the lines. About 15 years ago when they started using plastic they didn't use the tracer wires when they first started fusing the plastic. One thing very dangerous about a line hit on plastic is the static electricity produced by the rushing gas against the plastic. Most medium pressure lines are from 28 to 32 PSI but there are lines up to 2000# PSI.
 
 
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