A gas utility pressure incident occurred in the Town of Drumheller early evening Monday, May 10.
Drumheller Fire Department and AltaGas crews responded to the incident which was called in just prior to 5:00 p.m.
AltaGas Utilities, vice president of Operating Services Bill Emmerzael, told The Mail the incident occurred at the Bankview pressure regulating station in south Drumheller.
“There is a process used to determine where the problem is, then it is isolated as soon as it’s found, repaired, and put back into service.
"One of the sensing regulators, called a pilot regulator, was causing the over pressure to occur by not reducing the pressure by the amount that it should have.”
When asked if there was any danger to the public, Mr. Emmerzael said, “Given that gas is lighter than air, as soon as it comes out of the stack on the relief valve, none of it comes back down.”
“The equipment worked as it was supposed to when the relief valves went. That was the right thing to have happened so that’s the good part.”
What happens now is that piece that actually generated the problem, will be taken out of service and analysed as to what may have occurred there and a new piece get put into place,” according to Mr. Emmerzael.
There was no disruption in natural gas service to customers and it took about 20 minutes to isolate the problem and repair it.
Spring is a great time for residents to reacquaint themselves with all the valley has to offer.
This is the fourth year for Be a Tourist in Your Own Town Week. The promotion, an initiative of The Town of Drumheller is slated for May 17 to 23. The promotion is aimed at creating local awareness for the products, services and attractions that Drumheller has to offer.
“Drumheller is the heart of the Canadian Badlands and we realize the importance of our location,” said Mayor Bryce Nimmo. “Our local residents are wonderful ambassadors for the valley and they do a great job hosting over 400,000 visitors every year. We look forward to being tourists in our own Town.”
The promotion comes at the cusp of the tourism season in Drumheller. Organizers encourage residents to see and experience what the valley has to offer. It is a great time to take a look at some of the sites, museums and businesses that many have become accustomed to passing by.
Economic Development officer Ray Telford says they have moved back the week to a later date this year, with designs on creating more awareness.
“Each year it gets a little bit bigger and a little better,” said Telford. Usually it was the first week of May. We decided to hold it over the long weekend. The reason we did this was for the summer worker season. At the beginning of May often a lot of companies didn’t have their employees hired, so at least now they will be prepared for the May Long Weekend.”
Along with the promotion, the town also runs a familiarization tour that businesses can sign their employees up to take. This way those in the service industry can serve their customers in a more efficient manner. Rather than just directing visitors to a point on a map, workers can provide first hand accounts of the sites to help those with questions.
“It’s to get people more aware that we live in a wonderful place for tourism, and a lot of us don’t get to see what is in our own backyards,” said Telford.
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