Austin Utilities to performs required pipeline awareness survey
Published 2:33 pm Thursday, April 21, 2022
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
To comply with federal regulations, Austin Utilities will be conducting a telephone survey to assess the awareness and understanding of those who live along our gas pipeline concerning safety and the safe use of gas.
Pre-survey calls made last week alerted customers to the upcoming survey calls that will begin Monday, April 25. They will run for approximately two weeks or until the required sampling rate is met. Customers can expect the phone number 507-481-1865 to show on their caller ID. Calls will be placed Monday through Saturday between the hours of 9:00am-8:30pm.
The survey will not ask for any personal information and will take just a few minutes to complete. Austin Utilities asks that customers who receive one of these calls please answer the call and complete the survey so that Austin Utilities can report back to the federal Office of Pipeline Safety that efforts to educate those who live along the pipeline about the safe use of gas have been successful.
If you receive a call asking for personal information this is not the Austin Utilities survey required to comply with federal regulations.
Austin Utilities is required to perform this survey every four years. Austin Utilities’ last survey was performed in 2018. Results of that survey showed 92% of AU customers would call 911 if they smelled natural gas, and 94% have heard to call Gopher State One Call before starting any digging project.
Federal pipeline safety regulations 49 CFR 192.616 and 49 CFR 195.440 require pipeline operators to conduct continuing public awareness programs to provide pipeline safety information to stakeholder audiences, including the affected public, emergency officials, local public officials, and excavators about how to recognize, respond to, and report pipeline emergencies. The purpose of the guidelines, known as Recommended Practice 1162 or Public Awareness Programs for Pipeline Operators, is to reduce pipeline accidents, which are often attributable to digging by homeowners, contractors, and farmers.
