PULLMAN, Wash. — The City of Pullman has issued a emergency declaration due to the natural gas outage affecting the area.
On Nov. 8 around 12:40 p.m., an excavator hit a nearby gas line, causing a gas leak. The Williams Pipeline was hit, which is a natural gas system between Pullman and Colfax.
Avista has released that the incident is affecting customers in the Pullman, Moscow, Albion, Palouse, Uniontown, Colton, Genesee, Troy, Bovill, Deary, Asotin, Lewiston and Clarkston regions.
Since Pullman buildings are heated using natural gas, all non-essential operations have been suspended and the buildings will be closed to the public until further notice.
Emergency Manager Mike Heston has activated the City Emergency Management Plan and has assumed the role of Incident Commander. Chief Heston states “the organization will continue working with Avista to define a timeline to return to normal operations. This is a complicated repair and restart. Gas is not like electricity where you can flip a switch and everyone is instantly back on.”
This state of emergency will allow additional resources to become available for the community if the situation evolves. Mayor Glenn Johnson says “we appreciate the hard work and prioritization that has been placed on mobilizing to address this incident. I remain confident in Avista’s safety record and ability to bring about a timely resolution while the City maintains public safety operations to our community.”
Pullman Transit along with all city essential services will continue operation. Washington State University has opened the CUB building to the general public during the emergency.
Additional Avista crews have been brought onto this incident to help restore services as quickly as possible.
