After months of requests, Alagasco replied to some of the Advertisers questions Tuesday night.

Here
are some of the key questions and their answers.

5. Do you have information on the age of the bare steel and cast iron pipes? Is there an industry
or federal standard for how long they should last before needing to be replaced?

Cast iron was installed by Alagasco up through the 1950s, and bare steel was installed through
1970. There is no recognized standard controlling the age at which bare steel or cast iron
should be replaced. The performance of these materials varies depending on the environment
to which they are exposed. Therefore, the management of cast iron and bare steel is based on
pipe and environmental condition monitoring from performance data and field observations.
Alagasco performs inspections and field observations of our pipeline every day.

8. How much does it cost and what kind of labor is involved with replacing cast iron and bare
steel pipes?

Generally, pipe replacement projects can vary significantly in costs. The multiple factors involved in a
project that can impact the price include: the pipe size and material being installed, environmental
requirements for the pipeline project, restoration costs, local permitting costs, weather conditions, type
of soil or rock encountered during excavation, impact of time constraints on the job completion, and the
number of customers impacted by the pipe replacement project for service restoration. For Alagasco,
pipe replacement projects are bid to various qualified contractors to obtain the best project value for
new pipe installation and Alagasco personnel perform the required pipeline tie-ins and customer meter
swap-overs.


9. There seems to be thousands of miles of very high and high-risk pipes (especially in urban
areas). How come those haven't been replaced? What determines whether lines will be
replaced? Do they have to leak (and how often) before they're considered for replacement?

For Alagasco, there are not thousands of miles of very high and high-risk pipes. Dependent on the
information that is being used as your source, it is recommended that you contact the American Gas
Association if you need nationally based data.

An annual review of all of our pipelines is conducted to determine the priority of pipe replacement
projects. This determination is based on multiple factors, including: reviewing the results of periodic
leak surveys which are mandated by federal codes, review of information from operations field
personnel based on their knowledge and experience, and analysis of proposed governmental projects
and their impact on piping operations. Based on the data collected and analyzed, pipeline projects are
then prioritized for replacement. Though an annual review of this information is conducted for project
planning purposes, the priority of these projects can change at any time if new information is obtained
that identifies pipeline segments needing to be replaced earlier than originally planned.

10. Data in the IMP shows that there were no incidents caused by corrosion, but corrosion is the
second-leading cause of leaks. What is being done to manage these frequent leaks?

Managing an underground natural gas piping system requires regular monitoring of the piping system by
leak surveys and other methods performed in accordance with federal codes found in the 49 CFR Part
192. In addition, Alagasco meets or exceeds the requirements of the federal standards required for
performing these surveys and has management systems in place to ensure the repair of identified leaks
are performed in a timely and compliant manner by extensively trained personnel who have passed
federally required operator qualification standards.