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Gas shortage triggers conservation order

Cars lined up for gas at Speedway on Spartanburg Highway. Several nearby stations were out.

Henderson County imposed the first level of fuel conservation measures on county personnel as a pipeline leak continued to cause some gasoline shortages in the county.

Numerous service stations across town ran out of gas and lines formed at those that still had fuel on Saturday as the area began to feel the effect of a major gas leak in Alabama that took a Colonial pipeline off of service.

“I have asked out department heads to implement a level one conservation response,” County Manager Steve Wyatt said Tuesday. “Bottom line is they’re common sense measures. We’ve got four different levels of fuel conversation. So this is the basic level.” Level one urges personnel to skip non-essential travel and turn off the ignition when they’re out of the car. It does not restrict law enforcement or ambulance calls.

“We think things will be back to normal probably middle of next week,” Wyatt said.

County-imposed conservation measures don’t apply to schools.

“I did get a report that their systems are basically in good shape,” he said. “You have had some sporadic instances of maybe some counties that don’t have their own storage capacity.”

Colonial Pipeline announced on Monday that it was stepping up distribution to the affected states.

'As a result, following around-the-clock operations to effect this contingency plan, supplies of gasoline have been delivered and/or are in route to terminal locations in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina," Colonial said in a news release.  "Delivery times to mainline and stubline terminals in these markets vary."

Gov. Pat McCrory issued an executive order that eased size, weight and registration requirements in order to encourage the flow of gas from other sources.

Ingles' Gas Express on Spartanburg Highway was already out of gas on Saturday morning. Lines formed at Speedway on Spartanburg Highway at Chadwick Avenue. Norm's Mini-mart Shell had gasoline at mid-day and was out by 5 p.m. Stations on the I-26 interchanges were open and still selling gas.

The shortage was caused by a break on Sept. 9 in a major gas pipeline that runs from Texas to New York and supplies gas to motorists on the East Coast.

McCrory's office said Sunday that state officials got an update from Colonial Pipeline executives regarding plans for getting gasoline flowing again on a main line that supplies North Carolina and many other eastern states.
 
"Based on our ongoing updates from Colonial, the construction of a bypass pipeline is moving forward which will soon allow fuel supply operations to return to normal," McCrory said in a news release. "In the meantime, my executive orders remain in effect to protect motorists from excessive gas prices and minimize any interruptions in the supply of fuel."
 
While there are pockets of service stations that have experienced temporary shortages, many have received supplies and others have them scheduled for Monday. McCrory directed Emergency Management officials to stay in contact with local officials should they have any requests for assistance.

Colonial told state officials that it expects to have a bypass of the leak in place by mid to late week. Upon completion of the bypass, it will take a day to test and get the line back in operation. The company has also been able to use another line to offset the shortage due to the line with the leak. Colonial continues trucking and re-supplying gasoline to the areas that need it.
 
On Thursday, McCrory issued an executive order temporarily waiving hours of service restrictions for fuel vehicles traveling in and through the state in order to prevent disruptions and backups at major fuel distribution hubs. Friday, the governor issued a second executive order that waives additional trucking restrictions and protects consumers from price gouging at the fuel pumps. Both executive orders remain in place for 30 days or until they are canceled.