News from May 10, 2007 issue

Local News
The Crittenden Press (2 pages) PDF
(Selected pages 1A, 5A)
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Jail, library evacuate for gas leak
Dressed in stripes and orange jumpsuits, 18 prisoners in the Crittenden County Jail shuffled safely across the street Monday to the courthouse to wait out a ruptured gas line at the nearby construction site of the new jail.
The inmates, as well as patrons and workers at the neighboring public library, were evacuated Monday afternoon out of concern that the fumes from the leak could ignite or at lease cause temporary health issues.
Tammy Robertson, chief deputy at the jail, said the transfer to the upstairs courtroom went smoothly.
“(No problems.) None, whatsoever,” said Roberston, in charge at the facility this week while Jailer Rick Riley is off for vacation.
None of the prisoners were shackled as they were transferred. Roberston said none of the inmates could be considered violent offenders.
Judge-Executive Fred Brown, who helped escort the inmates from the jail to the courthouse along with deputy jailers, constables, Sheriff Wayne Agent and a state police trooper, said he did not believe anyone was in serious danger from the leak, which spewed gas for almost two hours after being ruptured by a digging backhoe after 2 p.m. He said it was simply a precaution, keeping the health and safety of the public in mind.
No nearby homes or businesses were evacuated, but police cordoned off the area until repairs could be made by Atmos Energy, owners of the natural gas pipeline ruptured by the backhoe. Utility workers were quickly on hand to assess the situation, but a repair crew outfitted with breathing apparatus was not on scene until almost an hour after the leak occurred.
While the smell of the leaking gas could at times be detected a block away on the courthouse square, whipping winds quickly dispersed the fumes, which could be easily seen by the dust it carried out of the digging site.
The rupture occurred as workers with jail contractor B.H. Green and Son, Inc., of Paducah were removing pavement on West Carlisle Street to place an apron for an entrance to the new 129-bed detention center. Gas lines had been marked by Atmos earlier in the morning, according to employee Roy Boister. Though the backhoe operator was aware of the location of the 2-inch line, the depth was apparently more shallow than expected.
“Either they dug too deep or the line wasn’t as deep as they thought,” Brown said Tuesday morning.
Benny Green, owner of the construction company, told The Press on Tuesday that workers were led to believe the line was 30 inches deep, but was damaged by digging just over a foot below the surface.
“We have to dig down 16 inches to put the new entrance in,” Green said. “It wasn’t even that deep.”
However, Bobby Brown with the Princeton Atmos office said the pipe was about 20 inches deep. The gas escaped, he said, through a 3/4-inch tap that was damaged during the dig. To repair the compromised line, a steel squeeze-off was placed ahead of the leak, stopping the flow of gas to the tap.
“The only people affected were the (Ambassadors for Christ) church and library,” Brown said. “We lucked out really. The line dead-ends at the library.”
Repair crews clad in safety outfits were then able to safely remove the portion of damaged line and install a new section of pipe.
“It’s not necessarily an easy repair,” Brown said.
He said the contractor would likely be responsible for the gas cast to wind since the site was marked. The amount of escaped gas will be calculated by utility engineers using a complex formula factoring the longevity of the leak and size of the rupture.
Green said the work on the jail will remain on schedule, with completion expected by the end of the year. He said the project is currently about 50-percent complete.