Nevada governor declares state of emergency over fuel pipeline leak

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) declared a state of emergency on Friday night time after a leak pressured the shutdown of a gas pipeline that provides Las Vegas and southern Nevada.

The leak, which was detected at a pumping station in Lengthy Seaside, Calif., on Thursday, resulted within the closure of the Kinder Morgan pipeline that runs between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

“Tonight, I’m declaring a state of emergency for the gas pipeline leak impacting Southern Nevada,” Lombardo mentioned in an announcement posted to Twitter. “This emergency declaration will permit us to obtain federal waivers and sources as we navigate the evolving restore timeline, and it’ll permit us to extend transportation of gas by different means throughout this time.”

“To keep away from any pointless shortages, I strongly urge all Las Vegas residents to keep away from panic shopping for whereas awaiting restore timeline updates,” he added.

Regardless of the warning, a number of movies and pictures on social media confirmed lengthy traces at fuel stations in Las Vegas.

Clark County officers additionally issued an emergency declaration early Saturday morning in coordination with the governor, in an effort to elevate restrictions on trucking and different supply strategies to deliver gas into the county.

“This leak has not impacted the provision of gas, however reasonably the strategy through which this gas usually comes into Southern Nevada,” the county mentioned in a statement on Twitter.

“This declaration permits for our area to go away no stone unturned as we search to proceed to offer unleaded and diesel gas to our residents in addition to our emergency response suppliers,” it added.

Kinder Morgan spokesperson Katherine Hill mentioned the corporate expects the impacted pipelines to renew operations and start delivering gas to their respective markets by Saturday afternoon.