COLONIAL’S GAS LINE
— 5,500 miles total
— Runs from Houston to Linden, N.J.
— Supplies about one-third of the gas used on East Coast
— Serves 13 states and seven airports
— Includes 15 storage tanks and 260 distribution terminals
A major gasoline pipeline serving metro Atlanta will be out of service the rest of this week, the operator said Tuesday, a day after the line was shut down when a work accident in Alabama led to an explosion and fire that killed one worker.
Alpharetta-based Colonial Pipeline hopes to restart the line by the end of Saturday, a spokeswoman said.
That timeline would reduce the chances of metro Atlanta motorists facing dry pumps for the second time in eight weeks, people in the industry said. The same pipeline was out of service for nearly two weeks in early September, crimping supplies and boosting prices.
“If in fact the pipeline is up and running by Saturday there should be no disruption,” said Angela Holland, president of the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores.
Garrett Townsend, a spokesman for AAA, said it was six days before outages started appearing during the September shutdown.
Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday issued an executive order waiving work hour regulations for fuel truck drivers, a move aimed at assuring deliveries. He also urged Georgia drivers “to maintain regular consumption levels and travel schedules.”
Colonial, in a statement on its website, said a second, parallel pipeline carrying other fuels such as diesel and jet fuel was restarted late Monday after also being shut down by the explosion.
“Line 1, Colonial’s gasoline line, remains shut down. At this time, we anticipate Line 1 remaining down for the remainder of this week. Line 2, which transports diesel, jet fuel and other distillates, was restarted at approximately 11:00 PM CDT (Monday),” the company said.
Average prices, meanwhile, rose 4 cents a gallon in metro Atlanta on Tuesday, according to Gas Buddy, and were expected to keep rising this week.
Some metro Atlanta drivers said they expect to see an effect.
“It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m sure it’s coming,” said Arthur Chester, gassing up Tuesday at a Chevron food mart in Lawrenceville.
Industry analyst Patrick DeHaan of Gas Buddy, a company that tracks prices and trends, on Tuesday urged drivers to not fill up unnecessarily.
“A run on pumps could lead [to] significant shortage,” he said on Twitter.
The explosion and fire occurred just a few miles from the site of a leak that caused the September shutdown. A Colonial spokesman told Al.com, a news website in Alabama, that the work that led to Monday’s explosion was “related in an indirect way” to continuing repair projects linked to the September incident.
Colonial built a bypass around the leak to get the line restarted but has been working on more comprehensive fixes. “The work that was going on yesterday was in preparation for the permanent installation of the new pipeline in the leak site area,” the spokesman, David York, told Al.com.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the family and loved ones of the deceased, and our thoughts and prayers remain with the four individuals who were injured and who continue to receive care at area hospitals,” Colonial said in its statement. The victims worked for a Colonial subcontractor.
AJC investigation: Colonial's history of pipeline spills
Colonial’s two lines run past Birmingham and toward metro Atlanta and the eastern seaboard.
The convenience store association said Georgia retailers “began immediately working to secure fuel from other resources” after getting word of Monday’s fire in Alabama.
It noted that a different regional pipeline not operated by Colonial continues to flow, and that fuel also comes by barge into the ports of Savannah and Jacksonville for distribution in Georgia.
Holland said no members’ stores had reported outages so far.
Mike Thornbrugh, spokesman for QuikTrip, which operates 129 convenience stores in metro Atlanta, said he expects all stores to continue supplying most grades of gasoline if Colonial’s restart plan holds.
However, Thornbrugh said that in the meantime the company will supply premium gasoline to only about half of its stores to make sure those always have all gasoline grades available.
Business was normal at the Avondale Food Mart/Chevron in Avondale Estates late Tuesday morning as Camille Wolf, of Decatur, filled up.
Her tank was almost empty, but she said she would have filled the tank even if it weren’t because of the news from Alabama.
“It made it an issue,” she said. During last month’s gas shortage, she had to hunt for gas at several stations.
Even if no serious shortages arise, the incident could affect prices for a while. AAA’s Townsend noted that the explosion came just as gas prices were starting to decline from the gains of September.
“The explosion will at least temporarily put a halt to the pump-price dip we’ve experienced over the past 30 days,” said Townsend.
The average price of regular gas Tuesday afternoon in metro Atlanta was $2.23 a gallon, according to Gas Buddy, vs. $2.29 a month ago and $2.06 a year ago.
Colonial planned a decade ago to build a third fuel pipeline that would have increased capacity between its busiest shipping points, from the Gulf Coast refineries to Atlanta.
But as the AJC previously reported, the 500-mile pipeline was never built because its shipping customers were unwilling to commit to the $1 billion project, which would have increased capacity by about 30 percent.
Even if it had been built, it’s unclear if it would have helped. The line would have used the same right-of-way as the two pipelines shut down Monday.
Staff writers Kelly Yamanouchi and David Wickert contributed to this report.
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