A leak in the Colonial Pipeline, near Birmingham, Ala., has been causing gas shortages and travel woes for motorists across the Southeast, but Coastal Georgia has so far been unaffected, officials said Monday.
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The Alpharetta, Ga. -based pipeline company has finished emergency construction of a 500-foot section of pipe to serving as a bypass for the leaking section that it expects to open Wednesday. Right now, with between 252,000 and 336,000 gallons of gasoline being leaked into an Alabama retention pond from the pipeline, shortages are being experienced from Georgia north to Virginia. “It will still take a few days for the fuel delivery supply chain to return to normal”.
Colonial Pipeline operators are working to fix the pipeline and hope to resume shipping gas and diesel by the end of the week, AAA Carolinas said.
Gov. Pat McCrory has declared a state of emergency for North Carolina.
The pipeline leak discovered south of Birmingham, Ala. on September 9 is causing more and more problems for drivers. Most of the pipeline was built in either the 1960s or 1970s, according to federal records.
“When something like this happens, people do get very anxious about shortages in supply, and that has been happening this week”, House said.
“You budget your money on your gas and you wake up and the gas went up and you’re like, ‘I got to put 20 more dollars in my auto by the end of the week, ‘” said Waye.
“For consumers we have just received some good news”, McCrory said.
As of Monday morning, more than 400 consumers had filed complaints online or via a toll-free hotline to report potential gasoline price gouging to Attorney General Roy Cooper’s Consumer Protection Division. Other gas stations were limiting the amount of fuel each customer could purchase, and some had signs stating that they were out of regular.
“Oh yeah, I’ve noticed that the prices have just gone up, I mean, through the roof!” said Tom Wargo at a gas station northeast of Atlanta. The average price a week ago was about $2.10. With the delayed fuel supplies, the state’s average is 15 cents above the national average.
McCrory was briefed by state energy and emergency officials Tuesday and discussed short-term conservation measures until normal fuel flows are completely restored.
Colonial Pipeline is now shipping gasoline through a second pipeline, Line 2, that runs parallel to the ruptured line.
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Kloza said that if you are headed south over the next month “make sure you leave New Jersey with a full tank”. “There have been recent reports that wholesale and retail gas prices have substantially increased in some markets”, he said.
