Meeting was held to discuss gas line damage problem

Contractors and emergency response personnel came together Thursday to discuss recent construction accidents that shut down part of U.S. 78 in Snellville.

The meeting, held at the Georgia Department of Transportation office in Lawrenceville, was suggested by the DOT and Evermore Community Improvement District to discuss "lessons learned" from the gas line break, the third this month.

Jim Brooks, Evermore CID's executive director, said the purpose is to prevent future incidents, but also to coordinate faster and better responses, should there be future incidents.

Officials meet to discuss gas leaks
Gwinnett Daily Post

It's about time, and the contractors could be fined for $10,000 for each gas line damage incident. The newspaper is calling the problems "leaks," but I think it's a bigger issue than a "leak" when a contractor cuts through a 4" gas line. I think when a contractor damages a gas line, and that causes FIFTEEN businesses to close and neighborhoods to evacuate, it has caused much more than $10,000 worth of damage to our community. Imagine being a struggling business, and having to close up shop. How much income and work time do 15 businesses lose in a day?

"Our emphasis must be on prevention first and foremost, but if an incident should occur, we have to be able to coordinate an emergency response and identify alternative routes," Brooks said.

Brooks said, "I've always thought that when you bring good people together, they feed off each other's idea. Instead of pointing fingers and worrying about the past, we are looking to the future and finding better ways to work together."

Officials meet to discuss gas leaks
Gwinnett Daily Post

The meeting seems to have been mainly about how to reroute traffic and increase emergency response time.

I agree with Mr. Brooks that blaming and pointing fingers is a waste of time, (most of the time) however, in the case of public safety, and the fact that this keeps happening again and again - some finger pointing (and fines that are large enough to actually curtail mistakes in the future) should happen.

I mean, my God, these are freaking GAS LINES.