It’s Consumer Safety Month – Here’s How AGA and its Members Work Together to Keep You Safe

Safety is every natural gas utility’s top priority. On average, each utility invests $91 million each day to enhance the safety of its natural gas distribution and transmission systems. That’s why in August—which is Consumer Safety Month—we’re highlighting all the things that AGA and its members do to help keep customers, communities and employees safe.

Here are some of the ways the industry’s safety efforts come to life:

Peer Review Program 

AGA has administered 88 peer reviews for its member companies on 11 different safety topics since its Peer Review Program began in 2015. These reviews feature panels of gas utility professionals that provide participating companies with feedback on how they can make their operations safer. Again, safety is everyone’s responsibility; natural gas utilities share information and best practices with each other to ensure that all of them are collectively achieving the industry’s safety goals. 

Pipeline Safety Management Systems (PSMS)

Safety is our top priority. It is also a joint effort—a partnership between federal and state regulators, public officials, and emergency responders, excavators, consumers, safety advocates, and the public at large to help continue to improve the industry’s longstanding record of providing natural gas service safely and effectively to the nearly 187 million Americans who rely on it every day.

AGA and its members take a holistic approach to pipeline safety through the use of Pipeline Safety Management Systems (PSMS). At the heart of PSMS is a safety culture promoting non-punitive reporting and consistent self-evaluation to help identify top priority risks and taking steps to reduce these risks to prevent future incidents. Learn more about how utilities can use PSMS through AGA’s PSMS guidelines here.

Physical & Cyber Security

The nation’s natural gas utilities never stop thinking about ways to protect the industry and its customers from threats to their cyber and physical security. AGA and its members have voluntarily committed to a number of different physical and cyber security principles and practices that help ensure the safe and reliable operation of the nation’s pipeline system.

Customer Safety

AGA and its members’ commitment to safety doesn’t end when the natural gas arrives at its destination. That’s why AGA supports and encourages the use of the important 811 call-before-you-dig service—which gives consumers and businesses a hotline to call before they do any digging in their yard or on a project so that they don’t dig into a gas line. It’s also why gas utilities have added mercaptan—an additive that smells like rotten eggs—to the natural gas they provide to homes and businesses to make it much easier for homeowners to detect a leak and quickly report it so it can be repaired.

AGA and its members are driven to make our workforce, our infrastructure and the communities we serve safer every single day. How does your company do its part to promote safety in the natural gas industry? Share this post with a friend or colleague to help us celebrate Consumer Safety Month and continue the safety conversation.