Tina Phillips-Turner walked a residential street, holding a piece of equipment called a Flame Ionization unit. It is designed to detect gas leaks.
She carefully followed the connection from the South Jersey Gas main to each home’s gas meter, then walked the perimeter of each foundation with the detector held just off the ground.
The Pittsgrove resident works for United States Infrastructure Contracting, which monitors all of SJG’s mains and service lines on a regular basis, according to SJG Manager of Records and Quality Assurance Dave Newman.
On average, surveyors find two leaks a day, said South Jersey Industries spokeswoman Barbara DelDuke. The number of leaks found has gone down about 77 percent in the last six years, she said.
There were about 2,300 leaks found in 2010, compared to 526 last year, she said. She chalks that improvement up to a three-pronged program that includes replacing old infrastructure like cast iron mains that tend to leak at their many seams, the survey program and a hotline for the public to report problems.