By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- An official with St. Lawrence Gas says village government and residents should be aware of underground gas lines and take safety precautions whenever digging.

Tom Carroll, who works for the company, stopped in Massena on Tuesday as part of an effort to connect with each municipal board in their service area, from Chateaugay to Rowville.

He said residents should know how to look for a gas leak and report to either St. Lawrence Gas or call 911 if they spot signs. He said the most noticeable is the smell - natural gas has an additive to make it smell like rotten egg. He also said sometimes a leak will make an audible sound, a compressed air hiss. He also said leaks can kill vegetation around a meter.

“If you have dead grass around your meter that’s not normal. Gas can kill vegetation,” he said.

He pointed to two recent incidents where there were natural gas explosions in Horseheads and Bronx that resulted in fatalities, but only because the locals didn’t report signs of a gas leak.

“Numerous people smelled the gas in the air for days and weeks before the explosion but no one chose to do anything … and people died as a result of both explosions,” he said.

He said the Public Service Commission regulates St. Lawrence Gas and every time there’s an explosion, they have to follow new preventative rules.

“There’s significant regulation from the commission … and we follow them to a T,” Carroll said. “Every time you hear of one of those, regulations get added … they’re not frivolous, they do them for good reason.”

He said the large majority of explosions are not from equipment failure, but rather unsafe digging. He said people should call the state’s safe digging like at 811 before undertaking a project.

“We run a safe ship … the bulk of our gas leaks are from excavations, not equipment failure,” according to Carroll.

He also urged the board to put language in municipal contracts requiring the contractor to practice safe digging procedures.

He pointed to a recent project on Patterson Street in Ogdensburg that caused so much damage to a gas line, St. Lawrence Gas stationed an employee on site throughout the work.

“There were significant damages on that project over and over and over again. It got to a point where we stationed a man there and just left him,” Carroll said.

People can learn more about safe digging from www.stlawrencegas.com, www.digsafelynewyork.com or by calling the gas company at 315-769-3511.