Gas Line Repair in Jefferson, OR
In Jefferson, 32% of homes use gas — 30% of it piped and 3% from a tank. A meter is a regulatory boundary; a propane tank is not one.
Read this first
In Jefferson, 30% of homes are on mains gas and 3% on bottled, so the town average settles nothing about any one address. Mains gas ends the utility's regulated line at the meter outlet; a tank supply has no such boundary.
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 Jefferson is supplied
Mains and tank gas differ in ownership, in who to call, and in how the gas behaves if it escapes — propane is heavier than air and collects low rather than rising.
What they do not differ in is the emergency response, which is the same for both and is the first thing on every page of this site.
| Households in Jefferson | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 30% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 3% |
| Electricity | 49% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 1% |
| Wood and everything else | 18% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 2,033 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 Oregon as a whole, 44% of households are on mains gas and 2% on tank propane. Jefferson sits 14 points below the state on mains and about level with 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
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 how much gas work they actually do, not whether they can. Gas is separately licensed in most jurisdictions and plenty of capable plumbers do very little of it.
Other Oregon towns we route in
- Lyons 32% mains gas · 2% tank propane
- Sherwood 59% mains gas · 1% tank propane
- Lake Oswego 57% mains gas · 1% tank propane
- Hubbard 43% mains gas · 1% tank propane
- Cornelius 43% mains gas · 2% tank propane
Checking a plumber in Oregon
Oregon licenses are issued by the Oregon Building Codes Division, Department of Consumer and Business Services, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins. Plumbing businesses in Oregon must also hold a Construction Contractors Board license, which is a separate search.
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 Jefferson goes through this number as well.
Call (888) 752-8038