City explains sudden gas shutoff during cold snap; Gainesville council OKs $4.5M bond for more street, utility work

Jan. 17—Mistaken identity appears to be to blame for the natural gas outage that left over 600 Atmos customers in the cold last weekend.

Gainesville City Manager Barry Manager acknowledged Tuesday that a city utility worker accidentally closed an Atmos valve late Saturday night as crews tried to shut down a leak in the city's water system on the southeast side.

"We had a water leak that night and we were trying to isolate the valve and we were in an older part of town. We were trying to turn the valves off to get our water controlled and when we came to this valve, it was not identified and it was right next to a fire hydrant. (Natural gas) valves look just the same as ours if they're not identified with the name on them," Sullivan told the Register.

Sullivan thanked Atmos officials for scrambling several dozen workers to get customers turned back on by late Sunday evening. He promised that he would get with the city's other utility providers to come up with a way to prevent such an occurrence in the future.

"It was an accident. What we are doing right now is we are looking at training our employees coming up with possibly a new system to do this and also working with our fellow utilities to see if we can help get these valves identified ... we have mapped where our valves are, but that doesn't mean all the valves are on the maps," Sullivan said.

Street work

The city council voted Tuesday to float a $4.5 million bond to finance more work on the city's streets and utility lines. Sullivan said the projects won't be determined until after the bond sale, to allow him and his staff to determine the most urgent work that needs doing at that time. Listing the work in the bond language would restrict the city's options.

"Say we get a job and it comes in way too expensive and then we have something else that would work for the money — if that wasn't particularly in this, you could not use it," Sullivan explained.

Sewer plant

The council also voted Tuesday to go with a cheaper proposal for a project at the wastewater treatment plant. The city had planned to spend $8.7 million on a new retention basin and treatment for excess flow into the plant during stormy weather, in order to comply with state environmental regulations.

Public Works Director Allen McDonald pitched a more affordable option: a filtration system that would scrub the water as it comes into the plant and remove phosphorus — a common detergent ingredient — and other contaminants, thus preventing the leeching of said chemicals into the plant's runoff. That option, which McDonald said is now used in Little Rock, Arkansas and other places, would cost just $5.6 million and require less maintenance by city staff.

"In other words, we're something better for less money," noted Mayor Pro Tem Ken Keeler.