A CenterPoint Energy official has blamed an Annandale contractor for rupturing a natural gas line last week at Poplar Avenue and Cedar Circle.
CenterPoint spokeswoman Becca Virden said Mid-Minnesota Hot Mix failed to hand-dig within two feet of the line as required by law.
Mid-Minnesota vice president Jon Ferrell replied that the gas line wasn’t buried as deep as it was supposed to be when a skid loader broke it.
The break in a two-inch main distribution line about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 21, caused the Annandale Fire Department to close off several blocks around the site for about 90 minutes until CenterPoint workers "pinched"the pipe shut.
Twenty-two homes on Cedar Circle were without gas service until CenterPoint repaired the line later that afternoon, Virden said.
The incident occurred during work on rebuilding Poplar Avenue and replacing aging utility lines under the street.
The Mid-Minnesota machine tore off a service connection at the intersection, Virden said, after the utility had properly marked the line’s location.
According to a Minnesota statute she cited, "the excavator shall determine the precise location of the underground facility … before excavating within two feet of the marked location.
"If the excavation is required within the hand dig zone, the excavation must be performed very carefully with vacuum excavation or hand tools."
"They were supposed to hand dig within that two-foot dig zone," she said.
A federal law also requires hand digging, Virden said.
She expected CenterPoint would bill the contractor for the damages since it usually does.
"They’re not accidents," she said of such incidents, "because they’re preventable."
Ferrell said the line "wasn’t to the depth that it was supposed to be at."
It was supposed to be about three feet deep, according to blueprints, plans and stakes, he said, but it was only 18 inches down.
Mid-Minnesota does hand dig when it gets within a foot of a line, Ferrell said, but the pipe was much higher than it should have been, and the company didn’t get a chance to dig by hand before the line was hit.
"When it isn’t where it’s supposed to be then we run into a problem."
The fire department blocked Poplar and Chestnut Street to keep cars and pedestrians out of the area and told residents to close their windows, Fire Chief Brian Haag said.
Firefighters monitored the concentration of gas to make sure it didn’t collect anywhere, and with high winds that day, the danger of an explosion was minimal, he said.
Haag said the gas line break was the fourth or fifth on the Poplar Avenue project, which began May 2. The others were smaller service lines to homes.
CenterPoint said there have been over 100 hits to its underground pipelines from January through June in 58 cities including Annandale, and 34 incidents were due to inadequate hand digging.
"Our No. 1 problem in Minnesota related to third party damages is still inadequate hand digging," the utility said, followed closely by not requesting the location of gas lines.
Homeowners and contractors should call 811 to find out what’s underground before digging to prevent injuries, property damage, service disruption and possibly costly fines for damaged infrastructure, CenterPoint said.
They can also submit dig information by visiting the Gopher State One Call website at gopherstateonecall.org or by using a smart phone.