Stronger Odor of Natural Gas Triggers Complaint Calls

San Diego Gas & Electric has been bombarded the past week by calls from about 6,000 customers reporting natural gas leaks.

Few major leaks, however, have been found by SDG&E; employees dispatched to check out the complaints, said Fred Vaughn, a spokesman for the utility. Instead, most cases have turned out to be customers with normally undetectable leaks reacting to a stronger odor in gas supplies.

Natural gas is odorless, tasteless and colorless in its natural state. “We use an odorant so that if gas leaks you will detect it by smelling it,” Vaughn said. “With regular concentration of the odorant, only with a very serious leak will you smell it. With a larger concentration of odorant, with any minute leak that wouldn’t normally be a problem, you’ll smell it.”

The reason for the stronger odor is unknown, but Vaughn speculated that it might have been caused by a shift to a different supply of gas. The supply source in Texas was changed when a processing plant went out of service, prompting a change to a different gas field and pipeline. The increased concentration could have resulted during the changeover, Vaughn said.

Vaughn said the concentration of odorant should return to normal within a few days. Until then, SDG&E; employees are working overtime to check out gas-leak complaints. “We’ve got a safety problem, and we’re telling customers, ‘We’ll get to you, but it may take a little bit longer.’ ”

Small leaks usually pose no danger, Vaughn said, but the utility is responding to all complaints. “You never can tell,” he said.

“We’re dealing with the public. We can’t take a chance. We have to go out and check it.”

Calls to SDG&E; increase during the winter, but the calls are usually related to appliance adjustments, Vaughn said.

“We usually don’t get quite so many,” he said. “We’ve had so many calls this week, it’s close to some sort of record.”