Officials: Contractor Hired By Texas Gas To Replace Pipes Caused Rupture

Crews with a contractor hired by Texas Gas Service were replacing cast iron pipes with safer plastic pipes, when a line ruptured, a Texas Gas company official said Tuesday.

The rupture, which happened Monday afternoon, affected thousands. Emergency crews shut off a large stretch of I-10 east, El Paso’s busiest roadway at the most congested part of the day.

The surrounding area was evacuated and motorists were forced to turn off their vehicles out of concern the spewing natural gas, at combustible levels, would ignite a blaze.

A day later, Texas Gas Service was investigating what led to the rupture. When asked whom the contractor hired by Texas Gas is, an official said “I don’t have that information.”

“We have various, multiple contractors who we contract with to do repairs on our system and this happened to be one of them,” said Pete Parraz, community relations manager for Texas Gas Service.

When asked again if he knew who the contractor is, or was not releasing the information because it was part of the investigation, he said, “We do know which contractor but again it’s all going to be part of our investigation.”

When asked why the information was not being released at this point, Parraz said “well again, our priority is that the line is repaired and that the system is up and running.”

Parraz said any ruptured line is a priority for the company.

“Our system overall is safe. We are going to have incidents such as the one we had (Monday),” Parraz said. “But again, our crews responded, we’re making repairs, and we’re getting it back online.”