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Annual Update - Gas Distribution System
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This update covers the operation and maintenance of the gas system from this past year. The update will focus on aspects of physical condition, accomplishments, procedural requirements, federal and state oversight and regulatory requirements, capital project accomplishments, development projects support, and the major change in staffing and management of the gas system operation.
Gas System Annual Report to the Board of Public Utilities - October 1, 2025
With the changes made to the operational administration of the gas system, many of the issues that were cited by the PRC have been resolved. The Los Alamos County gas distribution system is a very good system with ample capacity to serve the community and is generally in very good shape. DPU has invested in the system to address both capacity and age/condition issues over the past 25 years.
The oldest portions of the system within the County that still use steel pipe are well protected and continuously monitored for compliant levels of cathodic protection, resulting in very good ratings for the condition of the pipe. Many areas have new polyethylene pipes. Only those areas with older Adyl-A pipe (older style plastic pipe) could be considered below the “excellent” rating level, but with good soil conditions and often being installed in original steel pipe sleeves, they rarely present problems and are not a concern in the near term.
Almost all problems (leaks) occur on fittings or welds that fail slowly and allow small amounts of leaking gas to finally surface and be detected by either a leak detection effort, or by someone who smells the gas and reports it to DPU. Other issues are found in isolated sections that were not replaced during a larger project, usually due to the complications to do so at the time. The number of leaks found each year remains very low (<10), much lower than the national average of 22.3 leaks (repaired) per 100 miles ...
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