Natural gas lines running through Capital High School became over-pressurized earlier this month, leading to a situation where "a fire or explosion could easily have occurred," according to a letter from Mountaineer Gas to a Kanawha County school official.
School officials dispute the gas company's version of the incident, and Superintendent Ron Duerring on Saturday called it "factually incorrect."
The incident happened on Jan. 6 and involved gas from a well drilled on the school's property by Reserve Oil and Gas.
Mountaineer Gas' allegations are laid out in a Jan. 12 letter sent by an attorney for the company to Jim Withrow, general counsel for the Kanawha County Board of Education.
According to the letter, Mountaineer Gas employees were called to Capital High on Jan. 6 after a regulator valve on a gas line became frozen, allowing the school's internal piping to receive too much pressure. That valve, according to the letter, connects the high school to the gas well drilled on the school's property by Reserve.
"As a result, a gas leak occurred in the school kitchen when excessive pressure blew out a pilot light, and the controls on a school boiler were damaged," Jonathan Price, the attorney for Mountaineer Gas, wrote to Withrow. "As I am sure you can appreciate, a fire or explosion could easily have occurred."
That letter is at the center of a Public Service Commission case filed on Thursday. The PSC will decide whether Mountaineer can shut off its service to Capital High because of the company's safety concerns over Reserve's well, which was drilled in the past two years and now provides the high school with part of its gas supply, along with Mountaineer.
"Unfortunately, the school's use of unprocessed, raw gas from the Reserve well caused an incident last week that could easily have led to death, serious injury and/or serious property damage," Price wrote. He could not be reached for comment late this week.
All of Mountaineer's allegations, besides the frozen valve, are disputed by Withrow in a return letter to Mountaineer Gas on Jan. 26 - two weeks after the initial letter was sent and 20 days after the alleged gas leak.
After apologizing for the late response, Withrow writes that Mountaineer Gas is overplaying the dangers that the school's more than 1,200 students and 130 staff members faced that day, and he says there was never natural gas escaping into the school.
"I can assure you that safety of students and staff is a number-one priority with Kanawha County Schools, however, it appears that the situation that occurred on January 6, 2016, was not as dire as you have represented it to have been," Withrow said. "I assume you did not have all of the information available."
Withrow explained to Price that the frozen valve, which was caused by moisture collecting and freezing inside the line, did lead to over-pressurization inside the school's piping, but he said the system sensed the pressure change and shut down the gas flow.
"While this situation caused an inconvenience, there was not a danger of explosion or fire as represented in your letter," wrote Withrow, who could not be reached for comment.
These competing narratives are being investigated by the PSC's legal and engineering staff and will be further reviewed during a hearing scheduled for Feb. 3 at the PSC office in Charleston.
Until then, the PSC has ordered Mountaineer to continue to provide the high school with gas as long as the lines from Reserve's well - located 400 yards from the school - are shut off.
"The situation described by the letters from Mountaineer and the [Kanawha County Board of Education] attached to the complaint allege serious safety issues regarding stuck valves and over-pressurization of gas serving the school," the PSC wrote in a Jan. 29 order. "Until we are able to obtain more facts, we will err on the side of caution."
In an email response to questions Saturday, Duerring confirmed that the gas valve was frozen, allowing the school's lines to be pressurized to 14 pounds per square inch, but he said a safety valve shut that gas flow off. The issue was recognized by the school's cooks, he said, when stoves in the kitchen wouldn't light.
The Kanawha superintendent said school plumbers, a Mountaineer Gas employee and a representative from Reserve all responded to the situation, and he said Mountaineer's statement's are "factually incorrect."
"During all meetings Kanawha County Schools, Mountaineer Gas, and Reserve representatives have stressed that safety of students and staff are priority one," Duerring wrote. "Free gas is not worth any breach of safety."
Kanawha County Board of Education members didn't know about the allegations of the alleged gas leak at Capital High until contacted by reporters this weekend. Board members said Withrow and Duerring are good about keeping them in the loop, but some were surprised they had not heard about Mountaineer's allegations.
"I haven't heard anything about it," said board member Pete Thaw. "I am amazed that we weren't told about this."
Robin Rector, the board's president, and board member Becky Jordon said they believed Duerring would have told board members if there was a problem.
"If anything is a concern, Dr. Duerring would have let us know," said Jordon. "If it would have been, they would have evacuated and we would have heard."
The school board has a regular meeting scheduled at 4 p.m. Monday at the board's office at 200 Elizabeth St. in Charleston.
Several of the board members, including Rector and Thaw, said they voted in favor of Reserve drilling gas wells next to the school. Thaw said he did so because of the revenue the agreement provided to the county school system.
The high school, according to previous reports, is allowed to use 200,000 cubic feet of gas from the well for free, and can purchase more gas at a 10 percent discount. The county school system also receives 12.5 percent of the profits from the wells, via royalty payments.
"We feel that Kanawha County Schools should continue to explore ways to save tax dollars in a responsible way," Duerring wrote. "We intend to use our free gas but take every safety precaution."
Rector said she believes the gas well only became active in the past six months, but according to Mountaineer's letter, the alleged leak on Jan. 6 wasn't the first time Mountaineer warned school officials about the company's concerns over the gas coming from the well.
In the letter, Price says company employees met with county school administrators in the months before January to discuss Mountaineer's liability concerns.
At that time, according to Price, Mountaineer staff rebuked school administrators for "tampering" with the school's gas connection when they weren't authorized to and warned school officials about Mountaineer's safety concerns over using unprocessed gas inside the building.
Price wrote that Mountaineer's staff continue to be concerned about the system used by Reserve, which they believe includes "substandard" infrastructure and improper pressure-regulating equipment.
According to Withrow, county school officials hired an engineer to fix the gas connection linking Mountaineer and Reserve's lines after they met with Mountaineer officials. He says that setup was inspected by engineers from both companies.
As for the moisture in Reserve's gas, which allegedly caused the regulating valve to freeze on Jan. 6, Withrow stated that school officials have since replaced the "dryer" on the well with "larger and more efficient" equipment.
Duerring said gas samples from Mountaineer and Reserve have been tested and are very similar. He noted that Coonskin Park and Yeager Airport are also receiving gas from Reserve.
David Freshwater, the president of Reserve, a Spencer-based company, could not be reached for comment.
According to documents, the PSC's Gas Pipeline Safety Division is also concerned that the gas supplied by Reserve may not be "sufficiently odorized," meaning people would not be able to smell the gas if it was leaking.
Mountaineer officials say they have no intention of supplying gas to Capital High in the future if the building continues to receive gas from Reserve's well. Price also said that Mountaineer wants to thoroughly test the high school's gas lines and appliances for damage before continuing to supply gas to the building.
"The risks and potential liability associated with the manner in which Reserve supplies gas to the school are simply too great for Mountaineer to have any involvement," Price wrote. "Given the potential for loss of life, serious personal injury, and/or property damage, Mountaineer has no intention of any further involvement in what is frankly a potentially lethal situation."
Reach Andrew Brown at andrew.brown@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814 or follow @Andy_Ed_Brown on Twitter.
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