Avista Beginning to 'Relight' Natural gas Customers in Some Outage Areas - bigcountrynewsconnection.com

Avista Beginning to 'Relight' Natural gas Customers in Some Outage Areas | Idaho | bigcountrynewsconnection.com

PULLMAN - The operator of the natural gas pipeline that was damaged near Pullman says repairs to the pipeline have been completed and Avista Utilities says they have begun to "relight" customers in some areas. Just past noon on Wednesday, a gas line was hit by an excavator north of Pullman. The incident would eventually force Avista to cut natural gas service to over 36,000 customers.

"An assessment and repair team was quickly mobilized to repair the damage to the pipeline, and as of today, the repairs have been successfully completed," says a representative from Williams, the company who operates the pipeline and provides natural gas to Avista.

An Avista representative said Friday morning that the company has begun to "relight" customers in some areas, but the company is still working to complete shutting off all of the meters in other areas. The company was not able to provide service restoration area specifics at the time of this writing, but said only the sections of the service area where all of the meters have been turned off are being re-pressurized at this time.

Avista says the Wednesday incident near Pullman cut their ability to serve customers in the Lewiston, Clarkston, Asotin, Pullman, Moscow, Albion, Palouse, Uniontown, Colton, Genesee, Troy, Bovill, and Deary regions. At around 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Avista customers in the LC Valley and around the region began to report losing service. The company says the incident is the largest natural gas outage in their history.

The complete natural gas restoration for all customers is estimated to take three to five days, according to Avista. Only an Avista representative can turn meters back on. The company says all field personnel conducting relights will have identification. Once relit, personnel will check the appliances in the residence. If the resident is not home, Avista will leave a card on the door upon the last attempt for the day, inviting the customer to call Avista so someone can come back to relight. Customers do not need to schedule their relights. There is no cost to customers for relights or gas restoration activity.