Police say a motorist smelled gas while driving by a PSE&G distribution station in South Brunswick, where the utility draws gas from the pipeline. The station is next to the New Jersey Turnpike
Officials said a natural gas leak was detected Sunday near the New Jersey Turnpike in South Brunswick where PSE&G draws gas from a Texas Eastern pipeline. SOUTH BRUNSWICK -- A natural gas leak was discovered Sunday afternoon in an area where a PSE&G distribution station along the New Jersey Turnpike draws gas from a Texas Eastern pipeline, police and company officials said.
Capt. James Ryan of the South Brunswick Police said a motorist on Cranbury-South River Road smelled the gas at about 4:30 p.m. and called 911.
Ryan said no one was overcome by the gas and there were no evacuations from the scene or surrounding area, which is in an industrial section of South Brunswick, along the eastern edge of the turnpike, just west of Cranberry South River Road. Ryan said there are no houses within at least a quarter mile of the site, which is near exit 8A, just west of Jamesburg.
The pipeline is operated by Spectra Energy, where officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night.
A PSE&G spokesman, Tony Garrihy, said the leak was not on PSE&G property Rather, Garrihy said, Spectra reported to PSE&G that the leak was in a 1-inch pressure valve at a Texas Eastern metering station adjacent to the PSE&G facility.
A Spectra spokesman, Creighton Welch, released a statement saying the company had plugged the leak by 6 p.m.
"At approximately 5 pm ET we were notified of a leak at our Jamesburg meter station near South Brunswick, NJ," the statement read. "A pressure relief valve froze, resulting in the leak. A nearby valve was closed in order to stop the leak, which was stopped at approximately 6 pm."
Garrihy said the distribution station is used to step-down pressure of the gas from the higher level it's maintained under for long-distance, high-volume travel through the pipeline to a lower level of pressure used for local lines and household use.
He could not say whether Spectra's leaky valve was involved in the step-down process.
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