Town Manager: Columbia Gas Moratorium As State Investigates

Town of North Andover -The company is required to investigate 120 abandoned service lines in North Andover.On September 11, the Town was alerted to issues that existed with service lines that were abandoned during the restoration work. Namely, there were service lines that may not have been disconnected from the abandoned main. The Department of Public Utilities (DPU) required Columbia Gas to immediately begin investigating and repairing the abandoned lines. 120 of those lines are in North Andover.

As of last Thursday, 107 of the 120 had been scheduled for an appointment. 68 of the 120 have been inspected. 54 were found to be correctly disconnected, 7 were found to not be disconnected from the abandoned main, and 7 required further verification. Those that require further verification need outside verification to determine whether the service line has been properly disconnected.On September 27, there was a Grade 1 Gas Leak in Lawrence. During investigation of that gas leak, it was determined that during the restoration work Columbia Gas failed to follow required procedures for the abandonment of gate boxes. If the company had followed those procedures, the gate boxes would have been removed or made inaccessible, preventing the subsequent Grade 1 gas leak, service shutoffs, and forced evacuations. During that investigation, Columbia Gas inspected all of the restoration work, over 8 miles in the three communities.As a result of these two events, the Department of Public Utilities opened several investigations regarding Columbia Gas. Last week the town received two notifications from the DPU, one mandating a third party audit of all of the gas line pipe work done during the restoration and one placing a moratorium on all non-emergency work statewide. This moratorium is being required for two reasons: (1) due to the concerns of the DPU and the several investigations it is conducting into Columbia Gas and (2) to ensure that all of the company’s resources are being used to complete the restoration and compliance work. Any other work done during the moratorium must be approved by DPU, and would include new connections and conversions.Residents should expect to see more Columbia Gas vehicles and staff in town during these coming weeks as the restoration work and compliance inspections are completed.