Reimbursement for gas leak

ZANESVILLE, Ohio-The Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency said those responsible for causing a gas leak will have to pay for the cleanup costs.

Executive Director, Jeff Jadwin said contractors were working near Zanesville High School and hit a gas line back on May 30th. He said the company doing the work did not find out in advanced where gas lines were located.

“Energy Co-Op will be billing them for their cost, for their lost product, loss of service to customers, their crew coming in to repair the line. What we’ll be going after, is the time the fire department was tied up, sitting at the emergency scene. The supplies that were used off of our truck to clean up some of the spills as a result of the incident,” said Jadwin.

Jadwin said it’s still being calculated on how much the contractor’s company will have to reimburse, but it likely would have been avoided by an 8-1-1 phone call.

“If you’re going to disturb the soil, that you call 8-1-1 before you dig. That’s whether that’s you or me as individuals or a contractor we have to make those calls to make sure we don’t get any utilities. If this had sparked, and we’d had a fire or hit an underground power line, we’re lucky no one died,” said Jadwin.

Jadwin said there was also an illegal oil dump last week at the former United Technologies property on Linden Avenue. The property owners will also be charged for the cleanup of the illegal dump.