Gas Line Repair in Salem, IN
Salem runs on both: 34% mains gas, 11% tank propane, 45% on gas of some kind. The two arrangements answer the ownership question completely differently.
Read this first
Salem splits between mains and tank gas, at 34% on utility gas and 11% on bottled. Which one a property has decides where responsibility changes hands: a meter outlet marks the boundary on mains gas, while a tank puts the whole installation on the owner.
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 Salem 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 Salem | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 34% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 11% |
| Electricity | 47% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | under 1% |
| Wood and everything else | 8% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 6,085 occupied housing units. Read it as fuel rather than as plumbing. The share on utility gas is how many houses burn it, which is the nearest thing published to how many have a service line. Service line definition: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.
Across Indiana as a whole, 64% of households are on mains gas and 7% on tank propane. Salem sits 30 points below the state on mains and 4 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
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
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 Indiana towns we route in
- Rochester 60% mains gas · 19% tank propane
- Akron 28% mains gas · 31% tank propane
- Kempton 2% mains gas · 52% tank propane
- Converse 38% mains gas · 14% tank propane
- Beverly Shores 90% mains gas · 0% tank propane
Checking a plumber in Indiana
Indiana licenses are issued by the Indiana Plumbing Commission, Professional Licensing Agency, 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 Salem goes through this number as well.
Call (888) 752-8038