Gas Line Repair in Lake Park, IA
Most of Lake Park is on the gas main: 70% of households. That means a meter on the wall and a service line under the ground, and a boundary between them that federal rules put in a specific place.
Read this first
A buried service line and a meter sit on most properties in Lake Park, where 70% of homes are on mains gas. Federal rules end the utility's service line at the meter outlet, so everything downstream of the meter is the owner's to maintain and repair.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey table B25040; the service line boundary is 49 CFR § 192.3.
If you smell gas right now
Leave the building on foot. Do not use a phone or a light switch inside. Call 911 and your gas utility from somewhere else, and do not call us — we are a referral service, not an emergency line. The full list, in order.
How Lake Park is supplied
On a mains connection there are two systems, not one, and the meter divides them. The federal definition puts the end of the regulated service line at the meter outlet; local code governs everything beyond it.
Practically, that means part of the problem may not be yours at all — and part of it certainly is.
| Households in Lake Park | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 70% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 16% |
| Electricity | 14% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 0% |
| Wood and everything else | under 1% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 627 occupied housing units. This is the heating-fuel table. It does not enumerate service lines, and no table does at this geography; what it gives is the best available indication of which arrangement a property is on. Service line definition: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.
Across Iowa as a whole, 57% of households are on mains gas and 15% on tank propane. Lake Park sits 13 points above the state on mains and about level with it on propane. Averages are where this kind of difference disappears. The figures on this page are the town’s own for that reason.
Before anyone digs on the property
The single most dangerous thing most people will ever do to a gas line is put a spade through it. PHMSA calls excavation damage the leading cause of pipeline incidents; 8-1-1 is a nationwide toll-free number to call before any excavation, and calling it gives a 99 percent chance of avoiding an incident.
Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.
What to ask whoever quotes it
Ask what they will do about the existing load. Adding an appliance changes what the existing pipe has to deliver, and sizing is a calculation against the whole system rather than the new run alone.
Other Iowa towns we route in
- Armstrong 41% mains gas · 36% tank propane
- Estherville 74% mains gas · 11% tank propane
- Sheldon 53% mains gas · 5% tank propane
- Paullina 56% mains gas · 8% tank propane
- Ashton 46% mains gas · 23% tank propane
Checking a plumber in Iowa
Iowa licenses are issued by the Iowa Plumbing and Mechanical Systems Board, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins.
Gas work is separately permitted and separately licensed in most jurisdictions, so ask specifically about gas rather than plumbing in general.
For repair work, not for a suspected leak.If you can smell gas, leave and call 911 or your utility from outside; this is the wrong number for that. For everything else — a line, a meter, an appliance connection — we will route you to a contractor covering your area, free of charge to you. Other Lake Park requests are covered by the same line.
Call (888) 752-8038