COLLIN AND DENTON COUNTIES (WBAP/KLIF News ) – 911 calls about natural gas leaks spiked in Collin and Denton counties this week, with residents complaining of an overwhelming odor in their homes.
Prosper Fire Chief Stewart Blasingame said Atmos crews ‘over-odorized’ the lines with mercaptan at their site in the City of Justin.
Mercaptan is an odorant used to help customers detect a gas leak. The higher than normal levels are sitting in the lines and are seeping into buildings through the service lines.
Blasingame said right now, there’s no need for residents to be concerned.
“There’s no elevated level of threat to the public. However, by some of the calls that we have responded to are actually resulted in gas leaks that homeowners had no idea until the higher levels of mercaptan were accidentally put into the line,” he said.
While most of the calls the fire department responded to did not end in the discovery of a gas leak, the Prosper Fire Department wants residents to call them if they smell gas in their home.
“If you smell gas, it’s still going to be our recommendation that you call 911 and have somebody come out and check the meters just to make sure its not a true gas emergency,” he said.
Atmos said crews are working to place filters in the lines at some of the metering stations, but there is currently no ETA on when the issue will be fixed.
CoServ also gets their gas from Atmos. So, CoServ customers might also notice an odor in their homes.
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