ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Xcel energy crews have completed inspections on 51 homes in St. Paul's Highland Park Neighborhood, looking for sewer lines that have been punctured or otherwise compromised by natural gas lines.
Crews discovered conditions that warranted re-inspection on 8 of those properties, although none of the homes presents immediate danger to residents.
The Department of Public Safety ordered the inspection after a St. Paul home exploded and burned to the ground last week. A plumber broke a gas line while cleaning out a sewer line.
It's been an ongoing problem since the gas lines were installed without digging conventional trenches. Some were inadvertently rammed right into the existing sewer line, causing a potentially explosive situation.
By completing the inspections, Xcel has likely avoided a one million dollar fine that was threatened by the Minnesota Office of Pipeline Safety.
This week's inspection was the 5th sewer sweep of its kind this decade, underlining a problem safety officials and Xcel hoped had already been solved after four explosions about a decade ago.
"We've never had the position that we found 100% of them... Safety being first we continue to work with our customers and plumbers to make sure that this potential issue doesn't exist out there," said Bill Kaphing with Xcel Energy.
Xcel is also working to develop a comprehensive plan that will define additional areas on our system that need checking, in an effort to locate other conflicts with sewer lines that may exist.
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