Richmond Gas Works has a leak problem

Kevin Cianfarini, an environmental activist and volunteer from Beyond Methane RVA, shows reporters a gas leak he found and reported in Church Hill on Thursday. Cianfarini walks through neighborhoods in his free time using a sensor to measure methane levels near gas lines. He reported this leak about a week prior and has since seen evidence of work being done in the area of the leak.

Kevin Cianfarini shows reporters a gas leak he found and reported in Church Hill on Thursday. Here, the reading shows a lower explosive limit of 100, which he said means "the gas has reached a concentration in air such that it can ignite."

Kevin Cianfarini shows reporters a gas leak he found and reported in Church Hill on Thursday.

You can smell rotten eggs on Carlisle Avenue.

For weeks, a natural gas line has been leaking from a yellow gas cap by the side of the road. Kevin Cianfarini, a volunteer with the local environmental advocacy group Beyond Methane, checks the air with a high-end gas detector.

The detector beeps and spits out a number: "100%". Cianfarini looks worried, but not surprised. According to Cianfarini, there was enough gas in the air that a stray match or a spark could ignite the gas.

The leak on Carlisle Avenue is one of more than 870 known leaky pipes, according to records shared by the city Department of Public Utilities.

Those pipes are releasing natural gas into the city's air, costing consumers money, contributing to global warming and creating health hazards that repeatedly require city and state agencies to intervene. The city has primarily placed fault on its old gas lines — created in 1851 — made of materials more prone to leakage as they age.

A gas leak outside 3600 West Broad Street Wednesday morning forced temporary evacuations from the building and shut down both West Broad and Interstate 195 while crews investigated the source of the leak.

A case-in-point occurred last week, when two gas leaks were reported within the city limits in less than 24 hours, prompting crews to evacuate buildings and shut down Interstate 95. By law, the city is compelled to respond immediately to leaks inside houses. Outdoor leaks are not required to be fixed immediately.

But the longer-term disruption is affecting Richmonders’ checkbooks. When the city's pipes leak, residents foot the bill. Last year, the city lost nearly $4 million worth of gas, according to purchasing receipts reviewed by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The year before, it lost more than $5 million.

City data shows that the leaks are everywhere — in Short Pump, Glen Allen, Highland Springs, Bon Air. The Fan and Museum districts are pockmarked with leaks, the data show, and at least 10 leaks are active in Church Hill and Montrose Heights, where Cianfarini and volunteer Erik Shilts often walk to test gas caps.

This map of Richmond's natural gas leaks was created by Beth Zizzamia and the Spatial Analysis Lab at the University of Richmond.

The leaks pop up as 170-year-old cast iron pipes corrode or when the pipes are accidentally nicked by construction crews. In 2019, a leak sprang from a gas line in Bon Air because of a nearby lightning strike. The pipe released more than $50,000 worth of gas, according to PHMSA, the federal agency that monitors pipelines.

In Richmond, the leaks are also worsening. In January 2022, the system leaked 14% of all its gas into the atmosphere — the highest leak rate ever recorded by the utility in a month. In the past four years, the system leaked between 4% and 6% of its total supply each year, according to city data.

Mayor Levar Stoney has promised to repair many of the lines using $10 million in federal grant money that the city celebrated receiving in April.

"These $10 million will go a long way obviously because it will cut costs for our consumers, but it will be environmentally friendly as well so we can reduce the amount of emissions that go into our atmosphere that unfortunately lead to dangerous effects on our climate," Stoney said last month.

In a statement, city spokesperson Petula Burks defended the utility, saying that it remains in compliance with strict regulations that ensure public safety.

"All leaks are taken seriously, evaluated immediately, and assigned a grade to indicate the potential hazard," Burks said. "Any gas leak that represents an existing or probable hazard to persons or property is immediately repaired until the conditions are no longer hazardous."

Burks also defended the agency's current strategy of continually repairing the system — a task that costs the city $20.5 million annually: twice what the city celebrated receiving in grant funds in April.

Gas hookups in Richmond, Henrico County and northern Chesterfield County primarily run through Richmond Gas Works. RGW is a private company run by the city. It is headed by April Bingham, who was appointed by Stoney in December 2021 and who now earns more than $200,000 a year.

Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th, and Lauren Rabak listen at the Shockoe Retention Basin in Richmond on Jan. 28, 2022, as April Bingham, director of the Department of Public Utilities, speaks during a news conference on President Joe Biden's Building a Better America agenda. Richmond Gas Works, a private company run by the city, is headed by Bingham, who was appointed by Mayor Levar Stoney in December 2021 and who now earns more than $200,000 a year.

The utility buys gas from wholesalers and makes up the loss by selling gas to Richmond residents. The city has previously said it does so without producing a profit, according to the Richmond Free Press. It also incurs costs when it has to repair gas lines or connect gas lines to new homes.

The numbers have not made sense for the company for years. In 2022, it had more than $250 million of unpaid debt, a reflection of its inability to keep customers and the cost of repairing its legacy pipelines.

Bingham's early strategy has been to raise prices. Last summer, a year into her term, the gas utility hiked the price of gas by 40%. At the time, the city said it was passing on price hikes that were being seen nationwide.

Stoney pushed another increase across all utilities in this year's budget, approved recently. Those increases will show up on Richmonders’ bills in July.

Richmonders will see a 9% increase to their utility rates starting July 2 following City Council's unanimous vote Monday to approve Mayor Levar Stoney's proposed $3 billion 2023-24 fiscal year budget.

Cianfarini said he does not see the light at the end of the tunnel. He believes the current strategy will lead to "higher bills for everyone connected to the system," particularly as the city plans to invest more than $100 million repairing its current lines — a debt that it will have to recoup well into the future.

The leaks exacerbate the issue and put a point on perceived mismanagement of RGW, where debt continues to climb.

Each year, several millions of dollars in natural gas escape the city's pipes. "Fugitive gas," as it is called, forces the city utility to tread water financially: For every $10 million grant that comes in, as much as a third is being wasted on gas that seeps out into the city air.

"It's money going up into the atmosphere," said Glen Besa, former director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club.

Natural gas pumped through Richmond's gas lines is 95% methane, a greenhouse gas that should not be inhaled by humans and that contributes heavily to greenhouse gas emissions.

While carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere longer, methane is thicker. The Environmental Protection Agency believes its impact on global warming is 28 times that of CO2.

Despite that, Richmond Gas Works’ public-facing website advertises gas as environmentally friendly, a position at odds with that of Stoney, who last month said fixing the leaks would be environmentally friendly. It is a refrain that echoes public statements made by national gas companies that regularly lobby Virginia politicians to defend the state's natural gas infrastructure.

The proposal was simple.

It is not clear what the city plans for RGW, if the city intends to meet its own goals of net-zero carbon emissions.

All gas leaks are taken seriously, evaluated immediately, and assigned a grade to indicate the potential hazard. Any gas leak that represents an existing or probable hazard to persons or property is immediately repaired until the conditions are no longer hazardous. Other leaks that are non-hazardous are scheduled for repair and continuously monitored and re-evaluated.

- Petula Burks, Director of Richmond's Office of Strategic Communications and Civic Engagement

In February, the City Council approved an aggressive plan known as RVAgreen 2050. It tasks the city to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by the year 2030 and then become net neutral by 2050. While one city agency works to curb natural gas usage, another needs to sell more in order to pay off its debt.

Burks said the agency acknowledges those goals "in the long-term," but that "absent current solutions, DPU continues to provide natural gas services."

In 2018, the city assessed that 18% of Richmond's greenhouse gas emissions come from natural gas — meaning Richmond Gas Works.

Mary Finley-Brook, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Richmond and an expert on American gas infrastructure, says repairing the pipes no longer makes sense as gas prices continue to rise.

She thinks the lack of a new strategy for the utility reflects its rudderless leadership as it heads straight into economic insolvency, dragging Richmonders along with it as it routinely raises their utility prices.

"It's mismanagement that (prices) are as high as they are," Finley-Brook said. "The only thing I can call it is a slow disaster. Nobody is driving this ship."

Luca Powell (804) 649-6103

[email protected]

@luca_a_powell on Twitter

"It's mismanagement that [prices] are as high as they are. The only thing I can call it is a slow disaster. Nobody is driving this ship."

- Mary Finley-Brook, professor of environmental studies at the University of Richmond

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