RANCHESTER — The Town of Ranchester should have natural gas in its section of the Tongue River Valley pipeline later this week, with the town of Dayton soon to follow.
But Ranchester Mayor and Tongue River Valley Joint Powers Board chair Peter Clark isn’t allowing himself to celebrate just yet. He’s been a part of this effort since it started eight years ago, and experience has taught him there will always be unforeseen circumstances with this project.
That’s just what happens when you’re trying to do something few others have attempted — a partnership between the towns of Dayton, Ranchester and Sheridan County School District 1 to bring natural gas to the valley.
“I’m still anxious about it,” Clark said. “I just want to make sure it works. But when you look back at it, it’s been a long haul, and we’ve faced a lot of challenges. To get it this far is pretty amazing.”
Throughout this week, Montana-Dakota Utilities is going through the “purging” process to prepare the pipeline for the natural gas, Clark said. Purging is the process of displacing air within a pipeline using natural gas. Purging a pipeline of air with gas is required whenever a pipeline is newly installed or reactivated.
Yesterday, MDU began purging the first section stretching from the metering facility at the west end of Fifth Street in Sheridan to the metering facility in Dayton, according to Lynn Hartje, district manager at Montana-Dakota Utilities. The town of Dayton is set to be purged Friday.
As purging takes place, MDU advises residents to be on the lookout for the various warning signs of a gas leak including an unusual odor or rotten egg smell; hissing noises; and bubbling in a wet or flooded area. If left undiagnosed for a while, a gas leak may also cause discolored vegetation, dead plants or abnormally dry soil.
When asked about the possibility of a gas leak during last week’s joint powers board meeting, project engineer Sarah Rawlings with WWC Engineering said the chances were small.
“Before (contractor) DRM left the project, each town was pressure-tested,” Rawlings said. “Ranchester was pressure-tested, Dayton was pressure-tested and then the whole system from the county roads was tested. There were no leaks at that time, but if leaks are found this time, they would be addressed shortly. I don’t think it should delay the gas.”
Last week, WyoDak Energy Services of Buffalo completed its installation of 91 service lines connecting homes to the pipeline, Clark said. While the joint powers board anticipated a minimum of 100 connections, Clark said he was relatively happy with the initial response.
“I’m happy to get 91,” Clark said. “When (the costs of) this thing first came out in May, I thought we wouldn’t get any.”
In May, it was revealed the cost of connecting to the pipeline with an 80-foot service line would be roughly $4,000 per residence with reclamation work included. The cost without reclamation work will be around $3,100. This was significantly higher than previously expected, due to increased costs in labor and materials, Clark said.
The joint powers board’s contract with WyoDak ended this week, Clark said, and any future service line connections will be performed by MDU. The cost of doing so has not been determined at this time.
The towns are pursuing a variety of ways to lower the cost of service line connection for residents, including applying for a Community Services Block Grant from the Wyoming Community Development Authority. During their meeting last week, the joint powers board unanimously approved the submission of the grant application.
Even though gas will be flowing through the pipeline shortly, not all valley homeowners will be ready to connect immediately, Clark said.
“I do have a list of people who are ready to connect to gas as soon as it’s in the pipe,” Clark said. “But there are others like me. I’m still waiting for a part for my boiler before I can connect. So there are still supply chain and labor issues affecting some people and maybe delaying the connection a bit.”
With the weather cooling, and some valley homeowners having already removed their propane heating systems, Clark said it was his goal to have all 91 households connected to the pipeline by the end of October, if not earlier.
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