The Palouse is continuing to suffer from what Avista Utilities has described as “the largest natural gas outage in its history,” with 37,000 customers said to be affected.
The outage began Nov. 8 after an excavator ruptured a gas pipeline on US Highway 195. As a result, Avista had to disconnect gas service in several cities, including Pullman and Moscow.
According to a message at the beginning of Avista’s answering machine, with the help of over 400 crew members, relighting efforts have now begun.
The process of relighting is now estimated to conclude Nov. 14. Relighting will be taking place each day between 6 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Avista said customers will be notified in advance of crews heading to their zone for relights.
In the meantime, many people are still without gas as a result of the rupture. Pullman mayor Glenn Johnson issued an emergency declaration Nov. 8.
Non-essential operations are suspended as a result of the declaration. According to the City of Pullman website, this suspension includes City Hall because the backup generator runs on natural gas.
“We appreciate the hard work and prioritization that has been placed on mobilizing to address this incident,” Johnson said in an official statement. “I remain confident in Avista’s safety record and ability to bring about a timely resolution while the City maintains public safety operations to our community.
According to a Facebook post from the City of Pullman, the city’s Emergency Management Team met on Nov. 12 and learned that Avista has experienced “unanticipated delays in [repressurizing] the natural gas lines.”
“Please remain patient and do not attempt the relighting process without the assistance of the utility trained personnel,” Incident cmdr. Mike Heston said in the statement. “I understand this is a bad situation, but creating a potential emergency situation will make things worse.”
As a result of the outage, University of Idaho canceled classes Nov. 9 and 10. UI is not the only school to cancel classes as a result of the gas outage. According to a Spokesman-Review article, both Pullman and Moscow school districts canceled classes Nov 9.
The Compton Union Building is operating as a warming station 24 hours a day, CUB building manager Addison Knappett said. The plan at the moment is for Nov. 13 to be the end of this service.
“It’s tentative, it depends on when Avista restores the gas service to campus,” Knappett said. “At the moment it’s through Monday.”
Knappett said some students have stayed overnight since this service began. The majority of people using the CUB are still students.
“It’s the normal influx of people from the late morning to the early afternoon,” Knappett said.
Maps of when crews are expected to be in each zone can be found on myavista.com.
