Controls atop the huge underground gas storage cavern located near Milner at the intersection of old Highway 41 and McKenzie Road.
Huge propane cavern may be leaking; neighbors offered relocation
Low levels of propane have been detected in soil and water samples taken on and around the site of a huge underground gas storage cavern near Milner and some residents nearby may be temporarily relocated.
There are multi-gas detectors and special detectors for propane or natural gas, but even they won't indicate the real problem with this.
The real problem is danger of an explosion, and that might be from a gas and air mix that is not even inside your home.
Get your facts right before you kill a neighbor with bad advice.
A carbon monoxide detector detects carbon monoxide. It will not detect explosive or toxic gasses other than the common byproduct of incomplete combustion, carbon monoxide.
Raw propane or natural gas has virtually no carbon monoxide. A cheap CO detector will not generally respond even to explosive levels of propane.
To detect explosive gasses, you need a detector that responds to what you are actually trying to detect. They do make explosive gas detectors, like this one:
http://www.firstalertstore.com/store/catalog.asp?item=1233
Expect to pay $30 to $100 for something that detects propane.
Let's not kill someone because you don't understand the difference between CO and propane.
#3 wdm on 10/17/09 at 03:32 PM [Reply]
Home Depot & Lowe's have inexpensive home carbon monoxide detectors. Highly recommended for anyone living in the area of the leak. It will give you peace of mind or knowledge to leave the area.
You must think the rest of us are as dumb as you.
#4 Duh-huh. The EPD has been involved since the first indications of a leak.
#5.1.1 The detectors you mentioned only detect the odorant, Ethyl Mercaptan, used to give propane a distinctive smell. This odorant is not present in the gas inside the cavern. It is injected into the gas at the loading docks where the tankers load. Raw propane is also an odorless, tasteless gas.
#7 That has yet to be determined.
#8 As the crow flies Milner isn't that far from Atlanta.
Yes this is a serious issue. 9 million gallons of propane is not something to be taken lightly. The company is doing everything in it's power to correct the situation. If they weren't do you think they would have told the media about it?
Thanks for your comment and for trying to make these people understand...
EPD officials reported late Monday they were unaware of the propane leak prior to reading about it on the Herald-Gazette website.
"#5.1.1 The detectors you mentioned only detect the odorant, Ethyl Mercaptan, used to give propane a distinctive smell. This odorant is not present in the gas inside the cavern. It is injected into the gas at the loading docks where the tankers load. Raw propane is also an odorless, tasteless gas"
This is worse than I thought if true.
This means a standard explosive gas detector or your sniffer will not detect explosive levels. It would have to be an expensive commercial IR system tuned for propane or catalytic system to detect the gas; homeowners can only depend on others to monitor levels.
If this is true and they really do not have ethyl mercaptan in the cavern gas, neighbors have no inexpensive way of knowing about gas in their homes. They also might be lulled into a false sense of security using a standard cheap consumer propane or explosive gas detector.
They also won't smell it.
Why don't they have ethyl mercaptan in the cavern gas Andy Someone?
1. Odorization isn't required until it leaves the distribution point, so it is an avoidable and unnecessary cost.
2. Mercaptan is adsorbed from propane (it can lose its smell altogether). Odorant levels would fall as it sits there, so you couldn't be certain of mercaptan levels as it left.
3. People in the community would complain about the smell.
brucegoldfarb.com/propane-and-odor-fade