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According to Piedmont Natural Gas, there are no natural gas leaks on its system. It said the widespread odor was caused by a local company destroying mercaptan tanks that were “mistakenly reported empty.” A source told Channel 9 that Legacy Environmental was the company that caused the smell. In a tweet, Piedmont Natural Gas said the smell was due to an unintentional release of mercaptan, which is added to natural gas to give it the distinctive smell of rotten eggs, making it easy to detect. Piedmont Natural Gas said mercaptan poses no threat to the community and no natural gas leaks were detected in their system. Piedmont confirmed the leak was caused by an environmental company near Uptown Charlotte destroying mercaptan tanks that were mistakenly reported as being empty. A weather phenomenon called an inversion made the smell more exaggerated across Charlotte, Brad Panovich confirmed.
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If life was endangered, we would have evacuated,” a firefighter who attended the incident said. A shelter-in-place order – not an evacuation order – was issued for residents within a 0.25-mile radius of the leak and the road closed off for several hours, news of which circulated on social media and a local news channel. Thanks to the windy dry conditions, the leaked CO2 in Sulphur appears to have dispersed without causing any harm to humans or animals.
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Jackson says said people started getting headaches and others vomited as a result of the stench. She said they did not evacuate after learning the smell and chemical, mercaptan, were harmless. Jake Ellis was at his condo just one mile outside of Uptown when he smelled the odor. At first he thought it was coming from his home or neighboring units. Erika Jackson was attending the national UPS convention on Thursday at the Charlotte Convention Center when the smell forced its way inside the building.
CMPD: Busy south Charlotte road closed due to natural gas leak
“It’s an opportunity not just for the Piedmont system, but for the entire supply chain of natural gas to eliminate these methane leaks,” he said. The National Weather Service has also confirmed a weather inversion is making the odor easier to smell. Officials are asking community members not to call 911 to report the odor unless there is a medical emergency or they feel that the smell is coming from their home or building. Signs of a gas leak include a stench like rotten eggs as well as physical symptoms, such as headaches, nausea and dizziness.
Novant Health said it temporarily paused operations at Presbyterian Hospital due to concerns of the smell. Telecom cables connecting Finland and Estonia, as well as Sweden and Estonia, were also damaged at the same time as the Balticconnector pipeline. Finnish and Estonian authorities believe both incidents may be connected to the Chinese vessel.
Additionally, the warmest winter ever experienced in the United States further suppressed heating demand for natural gas, contributing to prices averaging below $3 per MMBtu in the first quarter of this year. “This should be a wake-up call, carbon dioxide is corrosive and an asphyxiant, it’s a huge risk and we’re not prepared fro CCS,” said James Hiatt, a local environmental justice campaigner and former oil refinery technician. Dominion Energy is responding to a confirmed gas leak on Park Dr. in Raleigh this Thursday afternoon.
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Viewer video captures fiery gas line fire in Charlotte - WCNC.com
Viewer video captures fiery gas line fire in Charlotte.
Posted: Tue, 24 Aug 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
When warm air rises, air under the inversion can’t escape because it is cooler than the air above causing smoke and pollution – and in this case, smell – to get trapped. The National Weather Service said inversions are stable masses where cooler air is near the earth’s surface and warmer air is on top. The air masses are “inverted” from their normal temperature zones. According to information from Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, a weather phenomenon known as an inversion kept the odor close to the surface, making it easy to smell.
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About 5,000 miles of CO2 pipelines are currently operating in the US, which are predominantly for transporting the gas to oilfields where it is used to extract hard-to-reach oil – a process known as enhanced oil recovery. The pipeline running through Sulphur is part of a network stretching more than 900 miles through Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, which ExxonMobile acquired from Denbury last year. It took more than two hours to fix the leak, which is “unacceptable”, according to Kenneth Clarkson from the Pipeline Safety Trust non-profit. Wilbanks said the leak has since been fixed and the store is expected to reopen Wednesday.
He said it can help the company reduce its net emissions as close to zero as possible while paving the way for future use among others in the natural gas industry. The system is already underway in North Carolina where Crowe said it’s been detecting several small leaks around homes, apartments, and business meters. Those are typically connected to fuel furnaces, water heaters, and other gas appliances. However, along our entire natural gas system there are also constant risks of small leaks. We were up in our hotel room, and I got a waft of it, and I thought, ‘That’s odd. We are in this enclosed room.’ It just had a gas odor,” said Lee Wilzcek, who could smell the odor in Charlotte.
An inversion happens as air temperature increases with height and traps smells closer to the ground, according to the National Weather Service. Last year, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo initiated discussions with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on getting financing from the European Union to repair the pipeline. The EU covered 75% of Balticconnector’s original construction cost of around 300 million euros. Colonial Pipeline said Tuesday evening that it "continues to make forward progress" in returning its system back to service.
Whatever gas pipe repair is appropriate we will handle it as quickly as possible so your home or business is once again as safe as possible. At the same time, the Biden Administration, through legislation, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, is working to discourage natural gas use in homes by promoting electrification of heating and cooking. According to Piedmont Natural Gas, the current system-wide leak rate is 0.09%. It’s the equivalent of 313,000 tons of CO2 which is like 802,390,777 miles driven by an average gas-powered vehicle, according to the EPA’s greenhouse gas calculator.
Don’t hesitate — call Superior Plumbing & Drains immediately for professional gas leak detection and repair services. Our experienced technicians are equipped to handle any gas-related issue with precision and care, ensuring the safety of your home and loved ones. The rotten egg-like scent could be smelled in multiple neighborhoods and left 911 lines flooded with calls, leading to an emergency alert that lit up cell phones across the city. Although officials say no one was ever in danger, it also highlighted the need for residents to be aware of the signs of gas leaks.
Last year, NBI said that an initial inquiry by investigators and experts found a trail of about 1½ to four meters (five to 13 feet) on the seabed that was seen to lead to the point of damage in the gas pipeline. That trail is believed to have been caused by the heavy six-ton anchor of Newnew Polar Bear, which was later retrieved from the seabed by the Finnish Navy. CHARLOTTE, NC — Drivers in Charlotte and throughout North Carolina are finding a rude awakening at gas stations this week. Panic buying following a cyberattack and temporary shutdown of a regional pipeline has led to widespread gas shortages in the region. However, for U.S. gas producers, data centers are just one aspect of increasing demand in the coming years. Henry Hub gas averaged $2.70 per MMBtu in 2023, down 60% from $6.50 in 2022.
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