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Gas Line Repair in Union, NJ
In Union the mains connection is the norm at 82% of households, with 2% on tank propane. Knowing which you have is the first step and it takes one look at the wall.
Read this first
A buried service line and a meter sit on most properties in Union, where 82% 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 Union is supplied
Two questions hide behind one. Where does the regulated line end — the federal answer is the meter outlet. And who pays for a repair on either side of that — which is tariff and state regulation, and varies.
The second one is the one that costs money, and it is answered by your utility rather than by any rule you can look up.
| Households in Union | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 82% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 2% |
| Electricity | 11% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 3% |
| Wood and everything else | 1% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 19,916 occupied housing units. What B25040 measures is the heating fuel, not the connection. It is the closest published proxy for whether there is a buried service line here, and it is a proxy. 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. Union sits 8 points above the state on mains and about level with it on propane. That is the gap a statewide number papers over, and the reason the figures above are this town’s rather than the state’s.
Before anyone digs on the property
PHMSA describes excavation damage as the leading cause of pipeline incidents, and puts the effect of one free phone call plainly: someone who calls 8-1-1 before they dig has a 99 percent chance of avoiding an incident, injury, harm to the environment and even death.
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
- Alpine 85% mains gas · 1% tank propane
- Milltown 88% mains gas · 0% tank propane
- Cedar Grove 85% mains gas · 2% tank propane
- Haskell 88% mains gas · 2% tank propane
- Ridgewood 85% mains gas · 1% 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 Union goes through this number as well.
Call (888) 752-8038