Henrietta, N.Y. – Late Friday night, an RG&E repair crew arrived on Coachwood Lane in Henrietta to repair a gas leak that troubled residents for weeks.
Crews and their equipment started pulling up near Scott Craft’s house around 10 p.m. to fix the problem.
“I’m just really relieved” Craft says. “When I saw the Water Authority first pull up this evening they said and they were going to fix it it was a great relief.”
In a statement made Friday, RG&E said the leak in Craft’s yard and others were being marked in preparation for repairs that were expected to be made next Tuesday.
--------
Henrietta, N.Y. - Neighbors can smell the leak. They can actually see it bubbling in a small puddle that’s formed in one front yard. If you move close to the leak you can actually hear the bubbles!
All of this has many on Coachwood Lane in Henrietta somewhat concerned about what Rochester Gas & Electric plans to do about a leak that was pinpointed on Tuesday.
Some neighbors have been smelling it for weeks and even called the Henrietta Fire Department last month but crews could not locate the source of the gassy smell. (Note: The smell being a “Mercaptan” additive that is meant to warn people of the presence of odorless natural gas.)
The leak is located in the front yard of the Craft family home and Scott Craft is trying to be understanding of the situation.
"I'm not an expert on it, it may not be a big issue but that's not right," Craft said while looking down at the bubbling puddle in his yard. "I've got my son and I've got my daughter as well, you know if they said it's not a public safety (concern) they may be right, but, I don't know that."
The lack of a firm diagnosis and schedule for repairs has Craft and his neighbors left wondering, and fearing, the worst.
"The last thing I need is to come home and find my house no longer here," Craft said. "I just want to know that it's being addressed. You are dealing with a large corporation it could get lost in the shuffle, who knows?"
In a brief statement issued late Friday afternoon a spokesman for Rochester Gas & Electric explained that the leak does "not need immediate attention" citing New York State Public Service Commission “requirements.”
The statement mentioned that RG&E requested other “underground facilities in the area be marked in preparation for repairs that we expect to make next Tuesday.
On Friday morning 13WHAM News observed a Monroe County Water Authority worker at the Craft home beginning that process of locating and marking underwater pipes so they are not ruptured during the repair.
The RG&E spokesman refused to answer any additional questions beyond the statement saying he would be “tied up in meetings past five o’clock” on Friday.
"I said what if somebody comes by and doesn't know and throws a cigarette out there will there be an explosion?” Craft’s next door neighbor Dave Roundy recalled of his conversation with an RG&E representative on the phone. “He said probably not."
Roundy and other neighbors feel that this is an issue that should be addressed sooner rather than later.
"I thought they should've been here the next day. I mean if they came out here Tuesday evening I thought they should've been here Wednesday fixing it," Roundy said. "I expected them to be here bright and early the next morning. I kept hearing school buses and kept looking out the window and kept thinking it's them coming to fix it (but) nobody came."
Across the street a group of RIT students claim they’ve been smelling the gassy odor for a couple of weeks.
"I'm no Science Major but it doesn't seem like it's something that should be happening right there; boiling gas is not something that we want out in our yards," Brad Gillies said.
"It's definitely something weird boiling there,” Alex Crepinsek said. “Not sure what it is but there's got to be something done obviously."
"It looks pretty dangerous especially because we have a lot of young kids in the neighborhood too and you don't know if they're playing around it,” Allister Warren said. “Probably looks pretty cool to a young kid to go mess around with that and you wouldn't want that to happen for sure."
Henrietta's Fire Department has been called to Coachwood Lane twice in the last month with the most recent time being this week.
Fire Chief Jim Comstock said he understands the anxiety neighbors are feeling and while he can’t speak for RG&E he doesn’t believe this leak presents an immediate danger to anyone’s safety.
"Having those leaks from the ground isn't that uncommon,” Chief Comstock said. “I mean we run into them periodically particularly in this area in the Northeast where we have ground that freezes and thaws; it puts a lot of strain on anything that's buried in the ground."
