Port Pirie residents will be without gas supplies for up to the next five days as the city reels from financial losses worth thousands of dollars.
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The shortage also includes neighbouring city of Whyalla with the two towns sharing the same pipeline.
Epic Energy South Australia says that its crews will be working around the clock to repair a pipeline that ruptured near Caltowie on Sunday night, affecting 5500 homes in Port Pirie.
“Port Pirie and Whyalla are served by the same lateral pipeline that runs off the Moomba to Adelaide gas pipeline, which is owned by Epic Energy. A section of that lateral line was closed following the incident as a safety precaution,” said Clive D’Cruz, Epic Energy Chief Executive Officer.
“While we can confirm that it is a full pipeline rupture, we are still unable to speculate on the exact cause or exactly when gas supply will resume.”
The leak caused widespread disruption to homes and businesses, resulting in frustration among residents and thousands of dollars lost for business owners.
Many residents have had to rely on their microwave ovens in the kitchen and resort to cold showers as their hot water services fail them.
Production at Nyrstar has been hindered relating to aspects of the plant that rely on gas.
“The blast furnace, sinter plant and acid plants were already shut down undertaking maintenance work when the gas supply to the Port Pirie Smelter was interrupted on Sunday evening,” said Gail Bartel, Nyrstar Port Pirie Redevelopment Communications Manager.
“The copper plant and slag fumers that were operating have also now been shut down due to the interrupted gas supply to the site. There is no impact on employees as all employees are being used as part of the site maintenance work currently being undertaken across the plant.”
Medical facilities have had to make changes to ensure their patients are still treated with the necessary care.
Aged care facility St Joseph’s House has been lucky that some of their cooking appliances are electrical and they have barbecues, while they have been boiling water to ensure they the can maintain cleanliness.
“The residents’ hygiene is of the utmost importance,” said Mara Pearn, St Joseph’s House lifestyle co-ordinator.
“We have been coping quite well. We have got a great team together and we all work together and do what we need to do.”
Restaurants have been some of the hardest hit, having to turn away customers and reservations as non-functioning ovens and stovetops make cooking meals difficult.
“We can’t do anything without gas, so it affects us big time,” said Janette Wilson, Portside Tavern manager.
“We had eight staff on last night and had to turn away two big reservations. We had to return money to people who had already ordered because it was right on tea service when the gas went out.
“We can’t open the restaurant until it is back on. All the burners for pasta are gas and the pizza oven are gas. It was supposed to be a big night tonight as we were just about to kick off our weekly all-you-can-eat pasta night.”
Other places affected include Fork and Cork Café, which is closed until the gas is back in action, and the Central Hotel is unable to cook any meals.
The Central is still open, with the poker machines and coffee still available, but employee Karreen Backstrom says the gas situation will be inconvenient when customers come in at lunch time.
“I hope people that usually come in for a meal packed their lunch,” she said.
While inconvenienced, some establishments are finding ways to cope, with the International Hotel saying that if the leak continues tonight that they will bring in their barbecues and cook a varied menu.
Other venues have been luckier, such as the Woodshed Café, which does not rely on any form of gas for cooking.
Epic Energy was sorry for the disruption caused to the region and the expected continued inconvenience.
“We have mobilised the equipment needed to further assess and rectify the situation which will require digging back from the incident point approximately 40 metres each side to ensure there are no further issues. We anticipate this will take about 48 hours,” Mr D’Cruz said.
“Assuming there are no issues, we will then require another 48 hours to repair the pipe and restore the gas flow to the Port Pirie and Whyalla townships.
“This is an unfortunate incident and rest assured we are working around the clock to rectify the issue in a safe and controlled manner as soon as possible.”
