Gas supply disrupted in South Limburg village of Rijckholt due to water in gas pipes

About one hundred to one hundred and twenty households in the South Limburg village of Rijckholt will probably be without gas until early next week. Because they cannot cook on gas, residents are allowed to order food at the expense of network operator Enexis.

The problems in the village between Maastricht and Liège arose last weekend. A water main leaked on Sunday. The water sprayed out under high pressure and damaged a gas pipe. Water also ended up in the gas pipe itself. “When there is water in the pipeline, gas can no longer pass through,” said Enexis at the website.

“Because of the hilly area, the water that ended up in the gas pipeline could flow to different places,” said an Enexis spokesperson at 1Limburg. “That has now also expanded.”

More than 600 people live in Rijckholt. They have had water again since Monday afternoon, but more than a quarter of them have had to do without gas for three days now. And that will probably be another four or five days, Enexis fears.

The grid operator must first use a camera to determine exactly where the water is in the gas pipes. That is a big job, because the situation differs from meter to meter, the spokesperson explains. “It could be that one house has gas and the other doesn’t. It’s not a contiguous area that doesn’t have gas.”

If there is water in the gas pipe, Enexis sucks it away with vacuum trucks. How fast that will go is impossible to say. Initially, Enexis said that fifty to sixty homes would have gas again this afternoon, but for the time being, the number of households affected is only increasing. At first there were fifty or sixty, now it’s about double.

Residents of the affected homes can now order meals at the expense of Enexis. In addition, they are likely to be able to get compensation for other costs they have incurred. Whether Enexis will recover all costs from Water Supply Company Limburg is still unknown. It is unclear why the water pipe broke on Sunday.

In December 2014, almost the same thing happened in Apeldoorn. There were 540 households without gas at the time, after water and mud ended up in the gas pipe due to a burst water pipe. A residential and care center was also without gas at the time. Blankets were distributed to the residents so that they could keep warm. All residents of the neighborhood could shower for free in a nearby swimming pool.