Residents of Whittier may be without natural gas for almost three weeks.
That’s after Enstar Natural Gas officials shut off the flow of gas to the community of roughly 250 people Sunday night to address a pipeline leak.
The leak was first reported on Aug. 9, when a break was found in a subsurface section of the pipeline near the Twentymile River. Enstar spokeswoman Harley Hedlund said it got worse over the weekend.
“The damaged portion of the eight-inch pipeline crossing the 20-mile river did further deteriorate around 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, requiring us to immediately shut off the flow of natural gas,” Hedlund said. “So that evening, technicians headed out to Whittier to begin turning off meters.”
Enstar officials say they expect the outage to last until September 5th.
Hedlund said the utility had initially planned to truck down liquified natural gas from Fairbanks to help offset the leak, but those plans fell through.
“We weren’t able to secure a component required to regasify the LNG into our system,” Hedlund said. “So we’re continuing to evaluate other options to restore service as quickly as possible, one of those including the possibility of a temporary above-ground line.”
Hedlund said officials haven’t identified a suspected cause for the leak yet.
Kyle Sinclair is general manager for the Begich Towers, a large condominium where most Whittier residents live. He says they’ve been able to offset the loss of natural gas for now.
“We are up on diesel power running, and we have heat, power and hot water to all of our residents,” Sinclair said Monday afternoon.
Sinclair didn’t have a firm idea of how long the building will be able to rely on diesel, adding that he’s cheering for the Enstar repair crews.
Hedlund said the utility is working with Whittier city officials to keep the community updated.
Whittier’s city manager did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
