Home › New Jersey › Salem
Gas Line Repair in Salem, NJ
With 30% of households on the main and 8% on a tank, Salem has no single answer to who owns the pipe. It depends which of the two you are.
Read this first
Mains gas heats 30% of homes in Salem and tank gas another 8%. The difference matters more than the fault does at first, because only one of the two has a meter outlet where the utility's responsibility stops.
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 Salem is supplied
Two arrangements in one town, and the difference is not cosmetic. A mains connection has a meter, and 49 CFR § 192.3 ends the regulated service line at its outlet. A propane installation has no meter boundary and belongs to the property owner end to end.
Establish which you have before anything else on this page applies.
| Households in Salem | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 30% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 8% |
| Electricity | 18% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 39% |
| Wood and everything else | 5% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 4,323 occupied housing units. B25040 records what heats the house, which is the best available guide to whether a property has mains gas or a tank — it does not count service lines directly. Service line definition: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.
Across New Jersey as a whole, 74% of households are on mains gas and 2% on tank propane. Salem sits 44 points below the state on mains and 6 points above it on propane. That spread is what a state average hides, and it is why this page carries the town’s own figures rather than inheriting them.
Before anyone digs on the property
A locate before digging is free, and PHMSA is unambiguous about the value — excavation damage is the leading cause of pipeline incidents and calling 8-1-1 first avoids one 99 times in a hundred. The gap to ask about is private buried line, which a standard locate may not mark.
Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.
What to ask whoever quotes it
Ask them to describe the fault before they price it. "The line needs replacing" is not a diagnosis, and on a buried run the difference between one damaged point and a line at the end of its life is most of the cost.
Other New Jersey towns we route in
- West Orange 78% mains gas · 3% tank propane
- Riverton 86% mains gas · under 1% tank propane
- Red Bank 74% mains gas · 3% tank propane
- Seaside Park 83% mains gas · 3% tank propane
- Riverdale 73% mains gas · 4% tank propane
Checking a plumber in New Jersey
New Jersey licenses are issued by the New Jersey State Board of Examiners of Master Plumbers, Division of Consumer Affairs, 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. Non-emergency work in Salem goes through this number as well.
Call (888) 752-8038