Ameren Missouri celebrates Natural Gas Utility Worker's Day

COLUMBIA — Ameren Missouri work crews worked around the clock and restored service to their customers after destructive storms rolled through our area. Each crew member received years of training before they could make repairs on natural gas leaks. Ameren Missouri officials hosted their Natural Gas Utility Worker’s Day at their Operation Center in Columbia where apprentices become natural gas journeymen.

MU Senior Cassey Dahl of Ashland is a gas mechanic trainee and an apprentice at Ameren Missouri’s Columbia Operation Center. The center had a small village of huts where students practiced safety and learned the skills of a natural gas journeyman. Dahl said she originally wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father who is a Jefferson City lineman for Ameren Missouri. She eventually chose working with natural gas.

Dahl said, “I ended up really just liking the gas aspect of it and learning everything. I enjoy the hands on that we get to do and getting to see different stuff. I thought I would just stick with this instead.”

Dahl said someday she would help victims of tornadoes and other weather-related disasters. Until then, she would practice how to respond to a natural gas leak in a home or business at one of the huts at the Operation Center.

Dahl said, “It’s a good feeling to know that you can help people be safe. We have a lot of crews out right now who have been helping everyone who has been affected. The goal is to make sure everyone is safe around their homes, and nobody has any issues.”

Dahl completes her 2-year apprenticeship in August 2025. That’s when she would become an official natural gas journeyman. Dahl planned to do utility work in the Mid-Missouri area.