Gas leak alerts aren’t what they seem

By KATIE LIVERMORE News Reporter

Wondering why you’ve been receiving emails about gas leaks from Oregon State University lately?

The answer lies here.

Many of the gas leak alerts sent by the Public Safety Department at OSU are students reporting unknown odors within a building.

According to Mike Bamberger, emergency manager for OSU, students have made reports from microwaving food like broccoli or fish that permeates the building, odors from rainfall on the ground after dry spells, sewer gas or compounds from laboratories.

These unknown odors are alerted as gas leaks through email and are treated as an emergency situation.

The last true gas leak at OSU was in the pharmacy building parking lot in October 2021, which happened on two occasions in the same month due to construction hitting the gas line.

However, since then there have been a slew of gas leak alerts on the OSU campus that turned out to be false alarms, reports made for unknown odors.

According to Tom Doyle, director of environmental health and safety, it’s important to note natural gas smells like rotten eggs due to a chemical added to odorless natural gas so individuals can correctly recognize a gas leak.

When there’s a possibility of a gas leak, the fire department, Northwest Natural and the public safety department evacuate the building and set up a perimeter, sending an alert to the OSU community or anyone with an OSU email.

Oftentimes in laboratories, there are various odors that could stem from chemicals or can be a more innocent chemical reaction.

According to Doyle, laboratory sinks can produce odors from the drain lines if they aren’t used for a long period of time. The gas from the sanitary sewer system will emerge through the line and produce a malodorous smell that can be confused with natural gas.

The most common gas leak on campus is due to construction. This occurs from a physical disturbance, like a tractor breaking a gas pipe in a construction site.

Before reporting a gas leak, both Bamberger and Doyle suggest considering whether or not the leak is inside the building or outside, whether or not gas is used as an energy source and consider the reasoning behind why there would be a gas leak in the first place.

If there’s a suspected leak in a laboratory, Doyle suggests closing the door to seal off the premises, evacuate the area and call environmental health and safety.

“The students, employees, faculty, staff, the entire community… we’re are all kinds of the eyes and ears for safety. We all need to look out for each other and identify any hazards that we see as part of our studies here or work here,” Doyle said. If there happens to be an unknown odor that’s suspected to be natural gas, Bamberger suggests making a report by calling an emergency line. Then he suggests leaving the area and encouraging others to leave the premises, too.

For OSU emergencies the contact number is 541-737-7000, environmental health and safety the number is 541-713-SAFE and a new app released by OSU public safety called RaveGuardian can be downloaded for alerts and is available to text in emergency situations.

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