SaskEnergy may cut service to some Regina Beach customers

After months of upgrades and keeping an eye on ground movement,SaskEnergy says it may have to pull its service from some homes at Regina Beach.

"It really is the last option for us, but safety has to come first and if we feel we can't continue to serve you safely with underground gas lines, permanent loss of service really is the only option left to us." said Dave Burdeniuk, a SaskEnergy spokesman.

There were years in ReginaBeach where there were no leaks for an entire year, or one or two. We had 19 leaks through the summerand into the fall.- Dave Burdeniuk, SaskEnergy spokesman

A home in Regina Beach exploded last December after a natural gas pipeline ruptured.Burdeniuk says even upgraded flexible pipelines are unable to take much more ground shifting in the area.

"There were years in ReginaBeach where there were no leaks for an entire year, or one or two. We had 19 leaks through the summer [of 2014]and into the fall. We were already in there operating on our system but obviously the events of the first week of December showed that more had to be done," he said.

He says SaskEnergy will notify people in early June and cut their service by August. Crews have been constantly monitoring for groundmovement since the home explosion. While some pipe upgrades can withstand up to 30 cm of movement in total,Burdeniuksays they're seeing pipes shiftingbyinches at a time in some spots.

The utility will also help pay a portion to offset their costs to move to a different fuel or heating source.The amount will depend on what changes their home needs.

"We feel that, for some of these customers, they've been our customers for decades. We don't want to see them go, but we also don't want to just say, 'ok, you no longer have gas service, you're on your own'."

Burdeniuk says if they do decide to pull service from some homes in Regina Beach, they will be notified soon. He sayshe has already heard that a propane dealer has been going door-to-door in the community offering information about converting from natural gas to propane.