NMHS Gas Leak Suspected To Be Near Pool

Bonetti Construction crews will be at the for the third consecutive day starting at 8 a.m. Friday to focus on an area believed to be where a gas pipeline is damaged.

Inspection of the school’s pipelines has been under way since a gas leak was suspected on Tuesday.

Pressure tests of the gas pipelines were conducted Thursday and it was determined that the damage is likely near the area where the high school’s weight room and pool are located, Superintendent of Schools Dave Marken said.

What exactly is damaged and the age and size of the pipeline is unknown, but Marken said the construction workers think it might be an an elbow joint pipee. Marken said he does not anticipate that the repairs to the damaged pipe will be fixed by the end of Friday.

Damages to a pipeline were reported Tuesday afternoon after someone caught wind of a “faint smell of gas,” Marken said. Newark Memorial High School parents have told Newark Patch they smelled gas as early as Sunday during a showing of ""

Marken said PG&E officials were called to the high school on Tuesday and that gas services going into the school were immediately shut down once PG&E confirmed that a gas leak was present.

Electricity has not been impacted but the classes have resumed without heat in the classrooms, Marken said.

PG&E spokeswoman Monica Tell has said the damaged pipeline is not a major pipeline and that because it is on ’s property, the district is charged with getting it repaired.

Tell added that an area where a suspected fault is is safe so long as gas services are shut off.

"There is no gas service currently to the school, so there is no immediate danger as a result of that. And now it’s really just about (making repairs) to have gas services restored," Tell said.