A D.C. Public Service Commission order directing Washington Gas to act on all natural gas-related complaints within 50 minutes threatens public safety by spreading the utility’s resources dangerously thin, the company said last week.
The commission, which regulates D.C.’s public utilities, implemented the rules last month “to ensure the quality and reliability of natural gas service.” But Washington Gas argued last week in a filing with the commission that the directive may put the public at risk and should be overturned.
“Even if the Company adds resources, the Commission, by expanding the number of calls the Company has to respond to in 50 minutes, could spread the Company’s resources so thinly that real emergencies are not responded to when non-emergencies are being responded to,” wrote Washington Gas lawyer Cathy Thurston-Seignious. Washington Gas sets time guidelines for leak response based on the priority of the call, the company said.
The response time for Code 1 leak, the most serious, is 50 minutes or less, while the times for a Code 2 and Code 3 are 60 and 95 minutes, respectively.
In 2007, Washington Gas said it received 12,000 complaints about gas odor or leaks, and only 11 percent, or about 1,300, resulted in the need for immediate response.
Roughly 18 percent resulted in a found leak, the company said. And the most serious calls were responded to within 22 minutes on average. Meeting a 50-minute mandate for all calls would require 20 new technicians, the company wrote.
The $2 million price tag “will eventually be passed on to ratepayers, and these additional costs are not justified from a safety or operations perspective.”
Alan Etter, spokesman for the D.C. fire department, said Washington Gas usually is quick to deploy to emergencies. But there have been times, he said, when the utility’s personnel was already committed elsewhere and couldn’t get to the scene for 30 or 40 minutes.
“We can do a lot to take care of a gas leak that if left immediately uncared for could be really serious,” Etter said.
Citing the “undue administrative burden,” Washington Gas also is fighting an order requiring the report of all gas leaks to the commission no later than one hour after dispatching to the complaint. It is unclear when the commission might respond to Washington Gas.
