Gas service woes to go on
Months of disruptions likely for downtown neighborhoods
Residents and businesses in the Financial District and parts of the North End could suffer sporadic failures of gas service through the spring and possibly into summer and beyond, because it will take months for utility crews to remove all water trapped in gas lines by a weekend water-main break, officials said.
In an ominous sign for hundreds of residents and business owners seeking reimbursement for damaged appliances, lost customers, hotel bills, and other losses, National Grid and the Boston Water and Sewer Commission disagreed over who will be responsible for the claims. A commission spokesman said the matter may end up in court.
City and utility officials also were unable to provide an estimate of the damages, which appeared to climb into the millions of dollars yesterday, as crews and business owners endured the rotten-egg stench and jackhammer sounds left in the rupture's wake.
They also had no estimate on how many frustrated residents simply left their homes, bereft of heat, hot water, or working stoves, and booked themselves into hotels. The supply of natural gas was disrupted to more than 410 customers, but the number of homeowners and renters affected, for example, is higher because some of those customers are multiunit condominium complexes.
National Grid said last night that service to 59 customers had been restored and that it expected gas supply would resume at more addresses overnight. It could be Thursday before all customers have their gas back on, the utility said.
The scope of the disruption came into sharp relief yesterday as frustrated Financial District workers stared at signs indicating their favorite lunch spots were shut down. A rotten-egg odor from open gas lines wafted between office towers as the roar of jackhammers and the hum of utility trucks greeted pedestrians and motorists weaving around makeshift work sites.
Annie Leung stood at the entrance to the Rock Sugar Thai Cafe she owns on Batterymarch Street, greeting disappointed customers and clutching a telephone, awaiting word on when her gas service might be restored as she suffered through her third day shut down.
"I've lost so much business," said Leung, who estimated the loss at about $10,000. "My chefs showed up. I had to pay them."
The magnitude of the water-main break was compounded by the intertwining network of pipes under the street. A 12-inch, high-pressure water main underneath Devonshire and State streets burst early Saturday. The resulting spike of water broke a low-pressure natural gas line nearby and sent water gushing, undetected, for hours into the larger gas line, National Grid officials said.
While water service was quickly restored before most people awoke Saturday, it was Saturday evening before National Grid had identified the extent of the intrusion of water into its gas distribution system.
National Grid is replacing all the meters for the 410 natural gas customers affected, and some customers will have to replace ranges and boilers because water passed the meters and entered their personal property.
"A torrent of water in the system is like our worst-case operational scenario," said Nickolas Stavropoulos, executive vice president of National Grid. "The system just isn't designed to have liquids" in the pipes.
Because the gas service interruption was caused by a water-main break, it was not clear how customers might recoup their losses.
"If a building or a business incurred water damage as a result of the water-main break, they can file a claim with us," said Tom Bagley, director of communications for the Water and Sewer Commission. "As far as the gas being interrupted, they're going to have to go through National Grid."
Bagley said the issue of who would be liable for the financial impact of the gas service interruption "could end up in litigation."
National Grid workers provided the numbers of Water and Sewer Commission officials to residents who asked about reimbursement. A National Grid spokeswoman said the company does not believe it is liable.
"While we regret that this event has created extreme inconveniences for many of our customers, it was due to circumstances beyond our control, and therefore we do not believe that we are responsible for any resulting damages," National Grid spokeswoman Jackie Barry said in an e-mailed statement. "We continue to do everything we can to restore service as quickly as possible and are grateful to our customers for their continued patience."
Businesses that had coverage for shutdowns under their insurance policies stand the best chance of getting financial relief, said Bruce Falby, a Boston lawyer whose primary practice is in business litigation.
"The rights of the customers against the gas company may be severely limited by the contract that governs that service," Falby said. "Meanwhile, any rights of the customers against the Water and Sewer Commission are going to be complicated, since they aren't direct customers, and the Water and Sewer Commission may well dispute that it caused the problem."
A frustrated John Saunders, who works at an investment consulting firm on Federal Street, said the temporary closing of Sakura-Bana Japanese Restaurant on Broad Street had thrown off his entire week.
"We've been coming here every Monday for two years, and it's the first time we haven't been able to come," Saunders said.
In an interview near the site of the rupture, National Grid officials explained how water entered the system, and the painstaking process for removing it.
The high pressure of water spewing out of the ruptured main overcame the much lower internal pressure of the large natural gas lines underneath the Financial District, piercing the pipe. Through that opening, underneath Devonshire street next to the Old State House, as much as 70,000 gallons of water entered the gas distribution system, officials said. Once the rupture in the gas line was repaired, crews had to shut off every customer's gas manually before beginning to extract the water.
Removing the water is tricky. National Grid crews from New York, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire fanned out across the Financial District, pumping out the water from 13 miles of pipe. Crews pumped most of the water out through 41 access points in the affected area of the system.
But gas lines are not designed for water. They have valleys and crevices in which water has become trapped. Engineering crews from National Grid have mapped the network and identified sections where gravity has sent pools of water.
Yesterday, crews began digging at those sites, tapping into the line, and extracting the remaining water.
Passersby winced at the smell of mercaptin, the chemical added to odorless natural gas to make it detectable. The smell was stronger at the various craters drilled by National Grid workers throughout the Financial District.
Even after National Grid returns national gas service to all customers, a process that will continue past tomorrow, the utility is warning that customers could continue to face outages in the months ahead.
"We're mindful of the fact we're not going to get all of the water out," said William J. Akley, senior vice president of National Grid.
Some pockets of water will remain in place until they are pushed out by the flow of gas, and that may result in new blockages. Next winter, those pockets of water could freeze up in meters, causing a new round of problems for customers.
"The complexity of getting all the water out so our system works properly is a massive, labor-intensive process," Akley said. "We will be facing operational issues throughout this region for some time."
John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com. 