Union Warns of Possible Hazards With Gas Meters : Utilities: Southern California Gas Co. insists that any threat has been greatly exaggerated by the Utility Workers of America in an effort to influence labor negotiations.

Southern California Gas Co. has not properly warned residents of 34,000 dwellings in Ventura and the Ojai Valley of possible safety hazards resulting from impure gas piped into the area in previous years, union officials have charged.

The components that regulate pressure in gas meters outside the home and in appliances indoors could have been damaged by the contaminated gas, potentially transforming a “pilot light into a torch,” one top union official said.

Representatives of the Utility Workers of America, which is locked in a bitter labor dispute with the gas company, say the company should have begun months ago notifying customers and assigning service technicians to work seven days a week to replace the parts before a disaster occurs.

But the gas company maintains that the unions have greatly exaggerated the threat to human health and safety and points out that no mishaps have occurred.

Marcia Secord, the gas company’s district manager covering Ventura County, dismissed the union’s allegations as “scare tactics” to strengthen the union’s hand in labor negotiations. “They want people to get upset,” she said. “They want to frighten people.”

Secord said the company has mounted an intensive program called Project 81 to replace any regulators that might be damaged from the tainted gas. Calling in employees from other service areas, the gas company is forming a team of 65 workers who will work Monday through Saturday beginning next week until all the affected houses are examined.

Service technicians will inspect gas meters, water heaters and furnaces to make sure that the gas tainted with nitrogen oxides has not damaged their ability to limit the flow of gas into the home or to particular appliances. The years of excessive nitrogen oxides has led to premature aging of some rubbery parts in regulators, Secord said.

The workers’ mandate is to check the components in 34,000 homes before Nov. 1, when gas company officials figure people will begin relighting their furnace pilot lights and turning up the thermostats.

The company is still checking for signs of damage in some locations, and may expand the affected area--now considered west of Victoria Avenue--to dwellings in east Ventura, Montalvo, Saticoy and possibly north Oxnard, officials said.

The gas company says the regulators are only exhibiting “premature wear” and that they are being replaced purely as a precaution. There is no danger to residents during the interim, Secord said.

“It isn’t a secret, and it isn’t a safety issue,” she said. “We sent out notices to newspapers, television and radio. We would never compromise safety.”

Secord accused union members of trying to scare the public and apply pressure to the gas company because of a company proposal to replace some employees, such as meter readers, with contract workers.

Union members, who agree that they are concerned over the gas company’s plans, say the company is telling its customers “half truths.”

“We’re not trying to panic anybody,” said one service technician who is on the special 65-member team and who asked to be anonymous for fear of retribution. “Everybody I work with knows it’s a potential hazard. We’re all complaining that company is not being honest with the public.”

The service technician said the gas company has provided technicians with a written script which downplays any safety concerns, and is to be used to answer questions from customers.

Janet Jones, a service technician for 10 years before taking a full-time job as secretary treasurer with the Utility Workers Union of America, said the union is particularly concerned about the potential safety impact if the gas company were to replace longtime employees with contract workers.

She said the gas company relies heavily on its well-trained employees during emergencies.

“Here we have this potential disaster and in the future, if the gas company contracts out this kind of work . . . the people will not be as highly trained,” Jones said.

Secord said the gas company has no intention of replacing its service technicians with contract workers and she lamented that union officials would make the implication.

Union officials also contend that the gas company is downplaying safety concerns from the potentially damaged regulators.

The affected parts on the gas meters outside the home regulate the pressure of gas that comes into the house. If the part is faulty, gas could be entering the house under too much pressure, Jones said.

If the pressure regulators on individual appliances inside the house have also been damaged, the consequences could be serious, Jones said.

For instance, she said, a water heater could produce scalding water or begin to leak. If an unknowing consumer were to plug the leak, which had been relieving the pressure buildup, the water heater could burst.

A customer trying to light a pilot light on a heater could also be injured, said Gerry Acosta, the union’s regional director, a former service man for the gas company.

“A pilot light could go from a 1/8-inch flame into a torch,” Acosta said.

Or, the heater could continue burning gas and pumping out heat long after the home’s interior reached the temperature set on the thermostat. The force of the gas could also blow out the pilot light, allowing unburned gas into the home, Jones said.

“I cannot tell you how important it is that your heater functions correctly,” Jones said. Gas that is improperly burned can produce carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas, she said.

Vlado Bevc, a supervisor with the California Public Utilities Commission, said he was not aware of any safety problems at the gas company.

“There is always the potential for problems,” he said. “But the question is, how likely is it to occur?”

Not likely at all, say gas company officials.

The problem began with a local supply of gas contaminated with nitrogen oxide that the company used between 1987 and 1992, Secord said. During that time, company monitors registered an unusually high nitrogen oxide content.

But because the level was still well within state and federal standards, she said, no action was taken.

Then, during the summer of 1992, the gas company billing department noticed a pattern of low usage in the Ojai Valley and Ventura area. The company began checking outdoor meters and found some of the rubbery, internal parts of the regulators were becoming brittle.

The company began replacing the meters last fall and has installed 6,000 of them in the affected area, Secord said. But company technicians doing spot checks on indoor appliances, such as furnaces and water heaters, found that some of the appliance regulator components were damaged as well.

The gas company then decided to check furnaces and water heaters in all 34,000 homes in the affected area and replace parts susceptible to damage.

“It is because we are concerned about customer health and safety that we are going at this proactively,” Secord said. She said if customers are concerned about the safety of their homes before a service technician comes, they can call 800-427-7177.

Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles), who chairs the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, said she planned to look further into the issue after some gas company employees testified at a hearing she held Friday in Los Angeles.

“Clearly the utilities are faced with challenges to meet the demands of competition,” she said. “And while we want them to be competitive, we don’t want that at the expense of consumers.”

In the interim, concerned consumers should call the gas company and asked to have their homes inspected right away, one service employee said.

“If I had relatives living in the affected area, I would make sure their appliances were checked,” the service technician said.