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Gas Line Repair in McConnells, SC
Tank propane heats 19% of homes in McConnells. There is no service line here in the federal sense, which sounds like a technicality and is actually the whole difference.
Read this first
No regulated utility service line is involved where the gas comes out of a tank, and 19% of homes in McConnells run on propane. The tank and the buried line from it are governed by the supply agreement rather than by a meter boundary, which changes who is responsible for what.
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 McConnells is supplied
Propane changes the ownership question completely. There is no utility that owns a length of it, which means there is nobody else whose problem part of it is.
It also changes the risk in one specific way: propane is heavier than air and collects in low spaces rather than dispersing upward. Basements, pits and crawl spaces are where it goes.
| Households in McConnells | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 9% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 19% |
| Electricity | 66% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | under 1% |
| Wood and everything else | 5% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 766 occupied housing units. The table counts heating fuel rather than pipework. A house on mains gas almost certainly has a service line; the Census does not say so directly and neither do we. Service line definition: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.
Across South Carolina as a whole, 31% of households are on mains gas and 3% on tank propane. McConnells sits 22 points below the state on mains and 17 points above 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
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
If any part of the job is in the ground, ask when they are calling 8-1-1 and whether a private line may be in the way. Both answers should come before the excavation, not during it.
Other South Carolina towns we route in
- Little River 11% mains gas · 2% tank propane
- Piedmont 28% mains gas · 2% tank propane
- Loris 2% mains gas · 4% tank propane
- New Ellenton 49% mains gas · 2% tank propane
- Mullins 6% mains gas · 3% tank propane
Checking a plumber in South Carolina
South Carolina licenses are issued by the South Carolina Residential Builders Commission, Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins. South Carolina requires a residential plumber license for work over $500, according to the Commission.
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. Any McConnells job, gas or otherwise, is routed from here.
Call (888) 752-8038