On July 16, the Borough of Chambersburg, Pa., hosted a tour of its gas utility for staff from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Congress and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PPUC). The event was organized by APGA to raise the awareness of federal pipeline safety regulators that the vast majority of utilities that PHMSA regulates are municipal systems with a few thousand customers rather than the large investor-owned utilities that often are the focus of PHMSA’s attention. Chambersburg’s gas utility, with 10 employees and approximately 6,000 customers, is more typical of the average gas utility even though it is larger than most U.S. gas distribution systems. Attending from PHMSA were Alan Mayberry, Associate Administrator Pipeline Safety; Linda Daugherty, Deputy Associate Administrator Office of Pipeline Safety; Bobby Fraser, Senior Congressional Affairs Officer; and, Rob Burrough, Director of PHMSA Eastern Region Office. PPUC staff participating in the tour were: Paul Metro, Manager Gas Safety; Sunil Patel, Gas Safety Inspector; and, Kokou Apetoh, Gas Safety Inspector. Denny Wirtz, Staff Director of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials also participated. Hosting the event from Chambersburg were Gas Superintendent John Leary, Assistant Gas Superintendent Jon Mason, and Jeffrey Stonehill, who is the Borough Manager. Erin Kurilla, Doug MacGillivray and John Erickson represented APGA.
John Leary welcomed the group in the Chambersburg town council chambers and provided a brief overview of the Chambersburg gas utility. He emphasized the benefits that a municipal gas system provides such as the ability to quickly respond to possible gas odor reports and other issues. Utility employees live and work in the community, increasing level of concern for results, and increasing awareness of issues. Chambersburg’s citizens pay the lowest rates for gas of any utility in Pennsylvania. He also noted that like 90 percent of municipal gas systems, Chambersburg has never had a reportable incident in the 50 years that PHMSA has been keeping incident records.
Following the briefing, the group visited two work sites where Chambersburg crews were installing new mains and services. The group also visited Chambersburg’s gate station where it receives gas from Spectra, its pipeline supplier, and the Operations Center and warehouse, including Chambersburg’s 24-hour dispatch office. The guests asked many questions and were keenly interested in learning about the operation of a municipal utility.
APGA thanks Chambersburg for being such a gracious host for this important event. APGA plans to conduct similar tours in the future to educate key Washington regulators about the industry that they regulate. For questions on this article, please contact Erin Kurilla of APGA staff by phone at 202-905-2904 or by email at
ekurilla@apga.org.
